Houston at LA Chargers - This game has huge playoff ramifications. Both teams are almost assured to qualify for the postseason, yet they also both find themselves in second place in their divisions, and with no real wiggle room available to them to keep their hopes for a division title, and even the number one overall seed in the AFC, alive. Well, the Chargers still have some slim hopes for home field advantage throughout, although that is no longer a possibility for Houston, since the Broncos have secured a better overall final record than the Texans can muster, even in best case scenario. Both of these teams have tough defenses, although Houston's defense is the strength of their team, and the best ranked defense in the league by some margin. The Texans also are probably the hottest team in the league, having won seven straight. They have not allowed any of their last five opponents to exceed 20 points, and kept seven of their last eight opponents overall to 20 points or under. On average, they are allowing less than 17 points per opponent on the season. So while the Chargers offense can be explosive at times - and they scored 34 in Dallas just last weekend - expect the Chargers to struggle. This will likely be a low-scoring game, as it pits two of the best overall defenses in the AFC. But I like how Houston commits few errors and turnovers. That is a sign that they do not beat themselves, and generally exploit the mistakes that their opponents tend to make. This is why they are my pick to exploit mistakes made by the Chargers and come away with this important win. My pick: Houston
Baltimore at Green Bay - The Ravens were one of the teams that I had wrongly assumed, when the season began, would be a true title contender. It is clear that they are actually not all that good. Granted, they still have dim hopes of qualifying for the postseason entering this game. But everything has to go just so for them. They need to win both of their remaining games, while hoping that the Steelers lose both of their games. And it cannot feel good or inspire confidence that they just suffered a collapse against New England last week, in a game that they seemed to have pretty much in hand. Going up to Green Bay, to play in the "frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field, against a Packers team that still itself has to win to keep whatever slim hopes for a division title it has alive, will be a daunting task. One which, frankly, I do not believe the Ravens are up to. Expect the Packers to win this one fairly comfortably, possibly even very comfortably if Baltimore is not careful. I do not expect the Ravens playoff hopes to survive this game. My pick: Green Bay
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