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I picked 9 winners out of the final week’s 16 games, so the record for the entire regular season finished at 159 correct and 97 wrong. The playoffs begin this weekend with 4 wild card games – all interesting matchups. Here are my picks:

Cincinnati at Houston – neither of these teams is very experienced in playoff football, and quarterbacks Andy Dalton of the Bengals and T.J. Yates of the Texans are in their first playoff games. I expect this to be a low-scoring defensive battle, and Wade Phillips’ defense will come out on top and lead the Texans to a win at home.

Detroit at New Orleans – I believe the Lions actually have the better defense between these 2 teams, but there’s no way they’ll slow down Drew Brees and the Saints’ passing attack in the Superdome. New Orleans wins big here.

Atlanta at New York Giants – great matchup between 2 teams that feature tough running games. The Giants’ season was a roller coaster ride again, just like last year. After watching them finish the year with impressive wins against the Jets and Cowboys to sneak into the postseason, it looks to me like the Giants are peaking at the right time, just like they did in 2007 when they won the Super Bowl. I’ll go with the G-Men to win at home.

Pittsburgh at Denver – defenses have figured out how to stop Tim Tebow, and the Steelers are one of the few teams who still play hard-nosed defense. This will be a one-sided game with Pittsburgh coming out on top.

In reviewing the Buffalo Bills’ 2011 season, I’ve decided to break down the posting into 4 parts – critiquing the front office and coaching staff in Part 1, the offensive players by position in Part 2, the same for the defensive players in Part 3, and suggestions for possible trades, free agent signings and draft choices in Part 4. Here is the first installment, and with my wild card playoff predictions to be posted on Friday, parts 2-4 will be posted next week.

Front Office

General Manager Buddy Nix now has 2 draft classes in the books for this franchise, and the results of his drafts are mixed. The play of C.J. Spiller late in the season was promising, and along with the consistent progress Marcell Dareus showed all year, I’m willing to officially proclaim Nix’s first round choices as hits, rather than misses. Six of the nine players picked by Nix in his intial draft are still with the team, but only Spiller, Alex Carrington and Arthur Moats have made much of a contribution. The other three – Marcus Easley, Torell Troup and Danny Batten – have all had any progress hindered by injuries. The 2011 draft, on the other hand, appears to be a pretty good one, based on production during the season. Dareus, Aaron Williams, Kelvin Sheppard, Da’Norris Searcy, Chris Hairston and Justin Rogers all made significant contributions, while Johnny and Chris White played some on special teams. Michael Jasper was drafted as a nose tackle but after being added to the practice squad was switched to the offensive line. He is obviously a long-term project but the organization must see some value in him. On a side note, Dick Jauron’s last draft in 2009 is widely considered to be terrible since Aaron Maybin was a bust, but the 3 picks following him were Eric Wood, Jairus Byrd and Andy Levitre so that draft produced 3 solid players.

The experiment of signing Shawne Merriman looks like a lost gamble at this point, but Nix deserves credit for taking the chance. Merriman is signed through next season and coach Chan Gailey has said he fully expects him back next year, so there is an outside chance, although very slim, that he could still contribute something. Signing Nick Barnett after Paul Posluszny left was a major upgrade, and Brad Smith looked like a good addition to the offense and kick return game until injuries forced him into the lineup as a receiver, where he had mixed results. Still, Smith’s versatility should be an asset in 2012. Tyler Thigpen was signed as a backup QB but was never really needed. Three of Nix’s scrap heap finds from 2010 – tight end Scott Chandler and OLs Kraig Urbik and Erik Pears – raised their games to new levels this season and look like solid future additions.

Coaching

I still believe Chan Gailey is the right head coach to lead the Bills out of the wilderness, but the seven game losing streak, inconsistent play of the offense, and regression and overall disorganized play by the defense all have to fall under his accountability. He made a quick move after the season by replacing George Edwards with Dave Wannstedt as defensive coordinator, but my question would be – if  Wannstedt has any answers to fix the unit, why didn’t he suggest them to Gailey THIS year. After all, he is supposedly the assistant head coach. That being said, any change to what was being done with this defense this year is a positive. I thought it was very telling that, after the Bills clobbered Denver behind a rousing defensive effort, the unit’s players were universally praising the fact that the scheme was simplified for that game, allowing the players to use their instincts and play rather than overthink. It seemed to me that all season the players looked confused in the scheme. After simplifying things, you saw Chris Kelsay play the best game of his career, Jairus Byrd show the ball-hawking skills he displayed in his rookie year, and rookies like Dareus, Williams, Sheppard and Rogers all looking active. One other feather in Gailey’s cap, in my opinion, was his decision to bench Stevie Johnson after he was flagged for another celebration. I like Gailey’s style – he’s old school, is honest when addressing the media and has the respect of the players, mostly because he is a coach who knows what he’s doing. His disciplining of Johnson will further that respect.

Sunday’s season finale for the Buffalo Bills in New England proved one thing – the team is perfectly capable of competing with the Patriots for one quarter of an NFL game. Beyond that, the difference in quality between the two organizations is wider than the Grand Canyon. It’s almost a good thing that the Bills blew a 21 point lead and not only lost, but were hammered 49-21 in the game, because now when the team’s staff does its’ post-season evaluation, it won’t be clouded by any false promise that the team finished strong with 2 consecutive wins and are somehow on the right track.

This season in the NFL, a lot of teams came back from big deficits to win games, including the Bills early in the year against the Raiders and these same Patriots.  But for a team to blow a 21 point lead and wind up losing by 4 touchdowns, well, that team needs to pull out all of the weapons in its’ losing team arsenal to accomplish that, which is what Buffalo did on Sunday. Poor tackling, blown coverages, no pressure on the opposing QB, interceptions galore (including one returned for a score, of course), another ridiculous, selfish celebration by Stevie Johnson and loads of mistakes in every phase of the game did in the Bills. A side note on Johnson’s antics: Personally, I thought the “Happy New Year” message on his undershirt was funny and in no way “taunting” of the opponent, but he knew it was going to draw a flag and did it anyway. Kudos to Chan Gailey for punishing him by benching him for the rest of the game. It was the right move and tells me that he won’t allow anybody to put himself over the team’s interest.

The Bills have lots of things to fix if they’re going to turn things around in 2012, but the biggest thing is somehow finding a way to get this team to stop doing all the little things so terribly, most of all losing their composure during games. They need to find some veteran players who have experience playing in winning organizations, either through free agency or trades, and infuse them into their roster along with the promising young players. I plan on posting a season-ending “report card” on the team later this week detailing the problems in 2011 and possible fixes for 2012. Rather than write any more depressing comments on the loss to New England, I’ll wait until then to critique the team.

The NFL’s 2011 regular season winds up this week, with all 16 games being played on Sunday. I’m assuming the schedule was set up this way – no Thursday, Saturday or Monday games – so as not to give any unfair advantage (or disadvantage) to teams that qualify for the playoffs. Last week I picked 10 winners out of the 16 games, leaving the season record at a very well rounded 150 correct and 90 wrong. Here are my picks for the final round of regular season games:

Buffalo at New England – supposedly Tom Brady may have an injured non-throwing shoulder, which could limit his playing time. He’ll probably play, but you have to question how much his heart will be in it. To me, the Patriots without Brady are just like the Colts without Peyton Manning, very average. I’ll take the Bills to close the season with a win.

Detroit at Green Bay – the Packers have the NFC’s top playoff seed wrapped up, and the Lions will be playing to not get anyone hurt also. This shapes up like a preseason game, which makes it hard to pick. I’ll go with the home field and pick Green Bay to win.

Tennessee at Houston – the Texans clinched the first playoff berth in their history a few weeks ago, then basically shut it down. The Titans need to win to stay alive, so I’ll pick them to win on the road.

Indianapolis at Jacksonville – if the Colts win, they could blow their shot at drafting Andrew Luck, but the Jaguars have incentive to not win also, as they would be allowing a division rival to get the best player in the draft. This game should be a real mess. On paper the Colts are the better team, and I’ll pick them to show some pride and win.

New York Jets at Miami – the Jets need to win, then must get a ton of help to make the playoffs. I don’t think they’re good enough this season to even accomplish the first “must”. Miami pulls the upset at home.

Chicago at Minnesota – both teams have had disappointing seasons, but the Bears still have slim hopes so I’ll pick them to win this game.

Carolina at New Orleans – the Saints could get the second seed and a first round bye if they win and the 49ers lose to the Rams, but that won’t happen. New Orleans has a post-Drew Brees record letdown, and the Panthers get the win.

Washington at Philadelphia – both of these teams have played great football since they’ve been out of the playoff race, a tribute to veteran coaches Mike Shanahan and Andy Reid. I’ll go with the Eagles, who are by far more talented.

San Francisco at St. Louis – Jim Harbaugh has done an amazing job turning the Niners around this year, and they can clinch a playoff bye with a win over arguably the NFL’s worst team. It says here they’ll get it done, then be a legitimate playoff threat.

Seattle at Arizona – both of these teams made late runs to give their fans hope for next year, but the Seahawks have a chance to salvage a winning record so I’ll take them to win on the road.

Tampa Bay at Atlanta – the Buccaneers have been running for the bus for weeks, probably getting their coach, Raheem Morris, fired after this game. The Falcons win in a blowout.

Baltimore at Cincinnati –  the Ravens will know the result of the Patriots/Bills game by the time this game is played at 4 PM, so their effort in trying to win is subject to change. The Bengals almost surely need to win to get in, and I’ll go with them at home to pull it off.

Pittsburgh at Cleveland – with or without the banged-up  Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers will methodically wear down the Browns  and win.

Kansas City at Denver – although the Tebow Train has been derailed the last 2 weeks, and the Chiefs are resurgent under interim coach Romeo Crennell, I still think the Broncos, at home, will muster up a good enough effort and win this game to sneak into the playoffs.

San Diego at Oakland – Charger coach Norv Turner is on the verge of being fired, and his team’s effort will reflect that. Oakland wins at home to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

Dallas at New York Giants – this is a winner-take-all game for the NFC East title, a perfect end to the season as it’s the Sunday night prime time game. Both teams have been dominant at times this year, and both have been awful also. Because they’re playing at home and have players with more big game experience, I’ll pick the Giants to win.

The Buffalo Bills, after suffering through a seven game losing streak in which they hadn’t won a game since late October, turned the calendar back to September with an effort that looked like one of their early season games, beating the Denver Broncos 40-14 on Saturday in their home finale for 2011. Played on Christmas Eve, the win was a great Christmas present for the home fans, as all 3 phases – offense, defense and special teams – made contributions. The offense didn’t play a spectacular game, but played well enough to win. Ryan Fitzpatrick didn’t light it up, but did 2 things that he has to continue to do in 2012 if he is to lead the team to a winning season – he didn’t turn the ball over, and he used his legs to pick up a couple first downs and keep drives alive. That’s an important part of his game that’s been missing during the losing streak. C.J. Spiller had his best day as a pro running the ball, gaining over 100 yards and showing that he’ll be an important weapon in both the running and passing game next year.

The defense returned to their form of the early part of 2011, picking Tim Tebow off 4 times with Jairus Byrd and Spencer Johnson returning theirs for touchdowns to put the game away. They also did a good job of shutting down the Bronco running game and for the most part did a pretty good job of getting off the field on third downs. Byrd and Johnson, besides having the pick-sixes, were among the team leaders in tackles for the day, as was rookie cornerback Aaron Williams, who gets better with each game of experience he gets. Williams and fellow rookie Justin Rogers had the other 2 of the 4 picks the defense got. The star of the day for the D, however, was Chris Kelsay. Lined up for most of the game against a rookie tackle, Kelsay played the game of his career, leading the team with 9 tackles and recording 2 sacks on Tebow, one of the toughest QBs to bring down in the league.

 As for special teams, Rogers was again good on kickoff returns, while Leodis McKelvin had a career day returning punts, including an 80 yard TD return. Kicker Dave Rayner had a rough day, missing a chip shot field goal for the second straight week. He did, however, kick 4 field goals in 6 attempts to give the Bills a big enough lead to allow the pass rush to tee off on Tebow in the fourth quarter and create the game-deciding turnovers.

The Bills get one last chance to go into the off-season with a good feeling with a game at New England this week. It’s a tall task and there certainly will be no expectations, but if the players keep a “nothing to lose” attitude and just play hard, who knows what they can do?

I barely broke the .500 mark last week in my game predictions, picking 9 winners and 7 losers. That takes the total season tally to 140 correct and 84 wrong. Here are the picks for week 16:

Houston at Indianapolis – as I expected, the Texans, after clinching the first playoff berth in their history, relaxed and were upset by Carolina. This week Houston will get back on track and defeat the Colts, who finally won a game last week.

Cleveland at Baltimore – the Ravens got roasted in San Diego on Sunday night, then caught a break when the Steelers were beaten in San Francisco on Monday night. They’ll take control here and beat the Browns at home to stay atop the AFC North.

Denver at Buffalo – I can’t see Buffalo’s robotic defense having any idea how to handle the unconventional Tim Tebow offense of Denver. Add to that the fact that the Broncos’ physical defense will probably manhandle the Bills’ offense, and you get a Denver victory that will keep their division title hopes alive.

Tampa Bay at Carolina – Tampa’s coach, Raheem Morris, was being heralded as a bright young coach last year, but now is clearly on a head coaching death watch. The Panthers, who beat the Texans last week and are playing well, win at home.

Arizona at Cincinnati –  both of these teams have slim playoff hopes, but I have to lean toward the Bengals’ defense, and the fact that they’re playing at home, to pick them over the Cardinals.

Oakland at Kansas City – one of pro football’s best rivalries, these 2 teams still can win the AFC West. In fact, all 4 teams in the division are still alive. After stunning Green Bay, I have to believe the Chiefs, under interim coach Romeo Crennell, will be riding high and will win again over the up-and-down Raiders.

Miami at New England – the Dolphins, another team playing under an interim coach, will keep this game competitive, but at this time of year the Patriots don’t fool around. New England wins.

New York Giants at New York Jets – in an amazing turn of events, these 2 teams, who share the same stadium, will be playing in a game in which the loser may be out of the playoffs. It’s technically a Jet home game, but I’ll take the Giants to win since they really need it more to try and stay within reach of the Cowboys in the NFC East.

St.Louis at Pittsburgh – the Steelers and their hobbled QB, Ben Roethlisberger, looked pretty bad on Monday night in losing to San Francisco, and they’ll be loaded for bear in this game. So who comes to town to take the brunt of this? Yikes, it’s the lowly Rams. This is clearly a one-sided Pittsburgh win.

Jacksonville at Tennessee – the Titans’ playoff hopes took a hit last week when they were upset by the lowly Colts, so they’ll take no prisoners here against the Jaguars, whose offensive attack is basically Maurice Jones-Drew against the world. Tennessee wins at home.

Minnesota at Washington – kudos to the Redskins for stepping up and throttling the Giants last week despite being out of the playoffs. They should keep up their positive momentum by beating the Vikings at home.

San Diego at Detroit – the Chargers are in the middle of their annual December roll, and are playing their best football of the season. They have the veteran players to go on the road and win a huge game for both teams’ playoff hopes, and will get it done.

Philadelphia at Dallas – this season has been a disaster for the Eagles, but beleaguered coach Andy Reid, who is a real pro, has them playing great football now even though they’re not going to make the playoffs. With Michael Vick back at the helm, Philly will roll into Jerry’s house and beat the Cowboys.

San Francisco at Seattle – the NFC West was a weak division last season, but at this point this season both of these teams are playing well, and this is a pretty good matchup. The 49ers have the division title wrapped up, so I’ll go with the Seahawks at home to play desperate and pull out a win.

Chicago at Green Bay – the Bears are circling the drain, and having to go to the Frozen Tundra and face a Packer team smarting from being upset by the Chiefs is not what they needed. Green Bay wins in a rout.

Atlanta at New Orleans – this should be a great matchup, and I’ll give the advantage to the home team and pick the Saints to win a very close game.

After the Miami Dolphins blew out the Buffalo Bills, 35-8, earlier in the season, some of the Miami players accused the Bills of “laying down”. The Bills got their chance to respond to those accusations this Sunday, but that response was to lay another egg, as they played an uninspired game marred by turnovers, penalties and blown assignments on defense. The mistake-filled effort led to the Bills’ seventh consecutive defeat in what has turned out to be an extremely disappointing season. The final score was a respectable 30-23, as the Bills made a late charge to make it look closer than it really was. Buffalo’s defense didn’t play a bad game, but gave up 3 touchdowns on big plays that appeared to include major breakdowns. The first was a Matt Moore to Anthony Fasano pass on a play that found the Dolphins’ big tight end wide open as Bills’ safeties George Wilson and Bryan Scott looked at each other bewildered. The second was a Moore to Brandon Marshall bomb that burned veteran Drayton Florence, who in recent weeks looks like he is playing his way out of the team’s 2012 plans. The final one was a 76 yard run by Reggie Bush, who had 200+ yards on the ground for the game. Still, the defense wasn’t the major culprit this time. Buffalo’s offense was terrible, ruining drives with costly penalties all day long and turning the ball over with 3 Ryan Fitzpatrick interceptions. The special teams made their weekly negative contribution also, giving up long punt returns all day long and getting a missed chip shot field goal attempt by Dave Rayner.

Rather than dwell on the many negatives the Bills provided again in this game, it may be better to just list the few bright spots from the game. They include, on offense, the play of C.J. Spiller, who had the best game of his young career, and the play of both Stevie Johnson and David Nelson. They both are consistent in what they provide to the attack each week, and on a team that sorely lacks depth, it’s critical that the Bills sign Johnson to a long-term contract if they want to show their fan base that they’re serious about building a winning organization. On defense, the play of 3 rookies – Aaron Williams, Kelvin Sheppard and Marcel Dareus – was encouraging. Williams led the team with 6 tackles and had a forced fumble, while Dareus got a sack, which has been an extreme rarity with this defense this season. Another plus was the kickoff return effort by another rookie, Justin Rogers. He averaged 33 yards per return on 4 returns, with his best being a 54 yarder.

Last week’s selections produced 11 correct picks out of the 16 games, pushing the season record to 131 correct picks and 77 incorrect. Here are my week 15 choices:

Jacksonville at Atlanta – this is an obvious mismatch pitting a down-and-out team that has already fired their coach against a team fighting for a playoff spot, played in the hungry team’s home stadium. This should be a lop-sided Falcon win.

Dallas at Tampa Bay – the Buccaneers have been a major disappointment this year, but you would hope they could muster up a good performance at home and play spoiler against a Cowboy team that has struggled to finish games. They haven’t shown the ability to muster up much of anything, so I say Dallas wins a game they absolutely need to win.

Miami at Buffalo – the Fish come to town having just fired their head coach, which means they’ll either be more motivated, or more disorganized. They beat the Bills soundly in Miami, but I believe Buffalo is not the type of team to mail in the rest of the season. They’ll rise up at home and break their 6 game losing streak by beating Miami.

Seattle at Chicago – this should be a low scoring game, and Seattle is on a roll, while the Bears have lost all their offensive weapons. The Seahawks win.

Carolina at Houston – the Texans wrapped up the first division title in their history last week, and I see this as a trap game for them. They’ll take the Panthers lightly and Cam Newton will lead a surprise upset win for Carolina.

Tennessee at Indianapolis – next season, and the expected return of Peyton Manning, can’t come soon enough for the Colts. They’ll stay winless as the Titans win to stay in the playoff race.

Green Bay at Kansas City – you have to wonder how the Packers can stay motivated for games like this, other than trying to stay unbeaten. It won’t be a total blowout, but the Pack wins again.

New Orleans at Minnesota – the Saints can only lose this game if they beat themselves, and they won’t. Drew Brees carves up a weak Viking defense and leads a New Orleans win.

Washington at New York Giants – the Redskins played New England tough last week, and division games are always struggles, but I have to believe the Giants, now in the driver’s seat in the NFC East race, will pull out a win here.

Cincinnati at St. Louis – the Bengals still have playoff hopes, even though they’ve lost ground playing a brutal schedule recently. They will ride a great effort by their defense to a hard-fought road win over the Rams.

Detroit at Oakland – the loser of this game takes a big hit to their playoff hopes. I’ll say that the proud Raiders rebound from being embarrassed in Green Bay last week and beat the Lions at home.

Cleveland at Arizona – the Browns have no chance of winning in the tough environment in Arizona. The Cardinals continue the roll they’re on with a big win.

New England at Denver – the Broncos are at home and have a much better defense than the Patriots, but this game boils down to Tom Brady vs. Tim Tebow. The magic ends here as there’s no way New England allows themselves to become the latest Tebow victim. The Pats rise to the occasion on defense and win.

New York Jets at Philadelphia – Michael Vick is back in the lineup and that makes the Eagles a different team. Although they’re out of the playoffs, the Eagles, under Andy Reid, will be prepared to play hard, especially at home in front of their critical fans. I’ll take Philly to win and throw a wrench into the Jets’ playoff hopes.

Baltimore at San Diego – the Ravens have had some major hiccups against bad teams this year, but still control their own fate in the AFC North race. Baltimore wins here to knock the Chargers out of playoff contention.

Pittsburgh at San Francisco – the defenses will control this game. Because they have much more experience under the Monday Night spotlight, I’ll take the Steelers to outlast the young 49ers.

Well, if the slogan for the Buffalo Bills during their 5-2 start to the season was “UNBILLIEVABLE” then the new slogan for the second half of the year is “IN SHAMBILLS”. That’s where they are at this point in all 3 phases of the game. It’s like beating a dead horse, but once again the offense couldn’t get anything done, the defense allowed long scoring drives and the special teams made a negative play to help contribute to a loss, which this week was a demoralizing 37-10 blowout delivered by the San Diego Chargers. Just like in the Miami game a few weeks ago, the Bills ran into a lowly team that found its’ groove just in time to crush them. After a season full of poor play and turnovers, suddenly Phillip Rivers was nearly perfect, carving up the Buffalo defense all day. One play during the game summed up my biggest beef with the team’s defense all year long, and the TV analyst, Solomon Wilcots, described the replay perfectly afterwards. On the play, the Chargers ran a 2-man route, sending only 2 receivers out on patterns and leaving everybody else in to block. The Bills blitzed on the play, but still had 5 players back in coverage. The Bills’ blitz, of course, got zero pressure on Rivers, but amazingly, in the secondary, the replay showed that Rivers had his choice of either receiver, as both were wide open. So 5 players in coverage and not one of them is actually covering either receiver. The result of the play, predictably, was a big gain for a first down. But the scheme being played was maddening. I believe the problem is over-coaching. The players are caught in a robotic scheme that drains their natural athletic ability and turns them into chess pieces that react late to everything, rather than allowing them to trust their instincts and go make plays. The reason coaches play this way is because they don’t trust the players, who, if left to their own instincts, will wind up falling for play-action fakes and making themselves and the coaches look foolish, resulting in big plays. So the Bills’ defense doesn’t give up a lot of huge plays, but instead wind up losing games by giving up long, time-consuming touchdown drives. I’ve repeated this point often – at some point during games, a defense has to contest something, show SOME aggressiveness.

The Bills, as a whole, have shown a lack of fortitude also. When the defense did come up with a big play – Bryan Scott’s fumble recovery TD that basically was a Christmas gift from Rivers – then hold the Chargers to a 3-and-out and give fans hope that they’re still in the game, the special teams allow a fake punt to work for a first down. Again, predictably, the defense doesn’t stiffen, it gives up another long touchdown drive. Ryan Fitzpatrick immediately follows up with a terrible pick-six interception, and the game is over. It’s really unfortunate that the Bills couldn’t have played the whole season with all of the players they started the year so promisingly with. Having depth on the 53-man roster is becoming a key to any NFL team’s success these days, and the Bills now know how badly they are lacking in that department. The final 3 games, starting this week with a home rematch against the Dolphins, is a three game head start on next year’s exhibition season. Players will be getting their chances to make an impression on the coaches for jobs for next year, and some will be playing their way off the roster.

Rayonsports.com now has a season record of 120 correct predictions and 72 wrong after picking 10 winners out of the 16 games last week. Here are the week 14 picks:

Cleveland at Pittsburgh – these are 2 old division rivals, and over the years the Browns have pulled some upsets in the series, but it won’t happen here. The Steelers are on a roll and will win easily at home.

Indianapolis at Baltimore – there are a few games that appear to be mismatches on this week’s schedule, including this one. The Ravens’ defense is too much for the punchless Colts, and Baltimore can’t afford to slip up with the Steelers on their heels. The Ravens will win.

Atlanta at Carolina – the Falcons find themselves battling to at least stay alive for a wild card spot, and need this game badly. They’ll throttle rookie Cam Newton and sneak out a close win on the road.

Houston at Cincinnati – both of these teams are fighting for playoff position, and both have played good defense this year. I’ll give the Bengals the advantage and pick them to win at home with the Texans playing with their third string QB.

Minnesota at Detroit – the Lions have faltered after a great start but also have played a tough schedule. They’ll win this division battle at home to keep their wild card hopes alive.

Tampa Bay at Jacksonville – this hasn’t been a banner year for pro football in Florida, and both of these teams came apart at the seams. The Buccaneers have been extremely disappointing, but they still have a much more talented team than the Jaguars and should find a way to win this game.

Philadelphia at Miami – it’s all over for the self-proclaimed Dream Team in Philadelphia, and they’ll be beaten soundly by a Dolphin team that has righted itself and played great football over the last month.

Kansas City at New York Jets – the Chiefs have virtually no weapons left on offense due to injuries, but they’ve been keeping games close and battling. Still, the Jets need the win and will get it at home.

New Orleans at Tennessee – I can see the Titans’ Chris Johnson running wild against a poor-tackling Saint defense, but it won’t be enough to keep up with the Drew Brees passing show, and the Saints will win.

New England at Washington – the Patriots will put one of their non-flashy methodical beatdowns on an undermanned Redskin team, as they are peaking at the right time, like they always do.

Buffalo at San Diego – both teams have been mired in long losing streaks, but the Chargers broke out of their funk on Monday night and seem to have rediscovered their offense. That spells a blowout win for them over the struggling Bills.

San Francisco at Arizona – the 49ers have taken complete control over what was the NFL’s weakest division last year, and should win here in what will be a close game.

Chicago at Denver – the Bears were starting to come on, then lost QB Jay Cutler, and last week their top weapon, Matt Forte, also got hurt. The Broncos haven’t been an offensive powerhouse behind Tim Tebow, but they keep winning. They’ll keep their surge going with a big win at home.

Oakland at Green Bay – the Raiders, when they’re motivated, can be a tough out, and they still have playoff aspirations, but this is just too tough of a spot for them. The Packers thrill their home fans with another lopsided victory.

New York Giants at Dallas – these 2 NFC East rivals are fighting for the division lead and play twice in the last 4 weeks of the season. Round one goes to the Cowboys, who should get the win in Jerry’s Palace.

St. Louis at Seattle – could there be more of a dog matchup to show on Monday Night Football than this? The Seahawks have played more consistent football so far this year and should win at home.