Last Week: 9-6

New Orleans Saints (8-2) at Atlanta Falcons (2-8)

These Falcons are just awful. An average defence at best, with a wildly underperforming quarterback, a completely washed up running back and their best two offensive options in and out of the physio’s room. Just ‘in’ in Julio Jones’ case. And they get to host the rampant Saints this week. Good luck ya mugs. Drew Brees is hauling ‘em at a 106.7 Passer Rating. Y’all ain’t got no chance.

Wildcard’s Pick: Saints by heaps

Pittsburgh Steelers (4-6) at Cleveland Browns (4-6)

The Steelers offence is getting it going now, especially the Roethlisberger/Brown connection. But it was their defence holding off Calvin Johnson in the second half last week that was most promising. Just shows that even at 76 years old, Pitt defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau is still the best in the business. This game is a toss up. Cleveland is deceptively better than they seem, but they don’t really appear to have the playmakers to get over the line against winning teams. This won’t be one for the neutrals. Gritty, determined, grinding – these are the kind of adjectives you’ll see in the match reports.

Wildcard’s Pick: Browns by 3

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-8) at Detroit Lions (6-4)

Detroit seems to keep losing winnable games, and it’s holding them back from being in that top tier of contenders, which is where they should be with this defence and with Calvin Johnson lurking. Reggie Bush is every bit as effective as he was for the Saints in 2010, but with an asterix “when fully fit”. The Lions compete and stay close, but for some reason keep falling short. Like losing to Pittsburgh last week. The Steelers aren’t even in the playoff race – that was a should-win game. I’m ready to start lumping the blame on coach Jim Schwartz, who thought it a good idea to run a fourth-and-long surprise run for the kicker. The only thing keeping this team from being written off in the clutch ala the Dallas Cowboys is that they also seem to win completely unwinnable games. Mostly against the Cowboys. Tampa Bay is finding some form, but Detroit has a point to prove and a division to run away with.

Wildcard’s Pick: Lions by 14

Minnesota Vikings (2-8) at Green Bay Packers (5-5)

The number 1 way to ruin a team: Injure their franchise quarterback.

It’s happened in Green Bay and look what they have to deal with now. Suddenly they’re 5-5, anguishing in third place in the division, and probably odds on now to miss the playoffs. For 20 AND A HALF SEASONS the Packers had only used 3 starting QBs (Farvre, Rodgers & Flynn). Scott Tolzien was their third in 3 weeks. Matt Flynn if he gets the gig will be fourth. Tolzien wasn’t bad, and he has a cool name (sounds like he should write fantasy novels, right?), but he’s not leading this team to the playoffs. Rodgers needs to return soon, or it’ll be too late.

Wildcard’s Pick: Packers by 4, since Minnesota don’t exactly have a QB either (or rather, they have 3 and they all suck)

San Diego Chargers (4-6) at Kansas City Chiefs (9-1)

The Chiefs are too good not to bounce back with a win this week. But their playoff prospects don’t look great if they continue to look incapable of overturning a deficit of anything over 7 points. Playing from in front they’re as good as it gets, but in the postseason it’s just too easy to fall behind by 10-14 points early on. Whatchu got Alex Smith?

Wildcard’s Pick: Chiefs by 10

Chicago Bears (6-4) at St Louis Rams (4-6)

A tale of two backup quarterbacks. Josh McCown is probably better than at least half a dozen starters, Kellen Clemens, eh, not so much. It seems like there’s been a spike in QB injuries this season. Every now and then it has to happen I s’pose, at least we get to see some young ‘uns get a chance. Nick Foles, McCown (who’s actually 34, but hey what the heck? Better late than never) and Case Keenum have been excellent in relief, and surely have futures in the NFL. But there is no more crucial position in American sports, no more irreplaceable player than a franchise quarterback. Losing Aaron Rodgers for around a month has probably ruined the Packers season. Losing Peyton for a year turned the Colts from a playoff contender into a 2 win team.

2013: The year of the broken quarterback.

Wildcard’s Pick: Bears by 10

Carolina Panthers (7-3) at Miami Dolphins (5-5)

This is the game in which we find out if Carolina is for real or not. Because Miami will be desperate to win, yet they aren’t a top tier team. This is exactly the kind of game that would trip up other pretenders like Detroit, Dallas or Chicago. Miami have difficulties against the pass rush, which has not surprisingly gotten worse since two of their starting O-liners were 1) dumped for bullying 2) ran away because of said bullying. Get in Ryan Tannehill’s face and you beat the Dolphins.

Wildcard’s Pick: Panthers by 3

New York Jets (5-5) at Baltimore Ravens (4-6)

This is an important game in the playoff hunt. The Ravens blew the chance to level out their record against Chicago, so a win here is imperative. The Jets are not at all good on the road – their only away win is in Atlanta – but they’re due a win this week. That is, on the basis that they’ve alternated between winning and losing every week this season. Seriously, they don’t have a streak of over 1 either way. And they lost to Buffalo last week. So by that measure, the Ravens are in for a rough one.

I’m not buying it though. There’s something wrong with this Ravens team. They seem to attract bad weather like a maudlin donkey. But they’ll beat the Jets.

Wildcard’s Pick: Ravens by 6

Jacksonville Jaguars (1-9) at Houston Texans (2-8)

Terrible game. Basically a playoff for the top draft pick. Clearly Matt Schaub is the most hated man in Houston right now. I hope he’s got a decent home security system. Case Keenum is ok, but raw as he proved last week. Home team gets the split. Jags to cover.

Wildcard’s Pick: Texans by 7

Tennessee Titans (4-6) at Oakland Raiders (4-6)

No thanks.

Wildcard’s Pick: Raiders by 4

Indianapolis Colts (7-3) at Arizona Cardinals (6-4)

Poor Indy. They really got duped by in the Trent Richardson trade. They thought they were getting a franchise guy at running back, but it turns out Cleveland had already seen what a slow, labouring crawl this guy operates at, and sold him high. Full credit to the Browns. Indy meanwhile are left to try operate with a run game good for 2 yards a carry, and the arm and inspirational half time speeches of Andrew Luck. Arizona, meanwhile, is not a team that should be 2 games over .500 at this stage.

Wildcard’s Pick: Colts ride their Luck for a 7 point win

Dallas Cowboys (5-5) at New York Giants (4-6)

So people were right when they said that the 0-6 Giants were the most dangerous 0-6 team ever. They’re on a 4 game win streak now, though when you look a little deeper (like, The Dugout, for example), they haven’t quite been playing against Pro-Bowl QBs. Eli Manning will absolutely be remembered as the worst QB ever to win 2 Superbowls, and this week, for the first time in over a month, will not be the best in his position this game. Tony Romo, especially on current form, is much better. And I mean that. The problem will be Dallas’ defence, which has been occasionally decent, but mostly abysmal. They beat New York comfortably enough (though not as easy as it should have been) in the opener by creating turnovers. Eli has cut down on those recently. Look for Lesser Manning to go deep against a Dallas secondary that has given up 400-plus yard games to three guys already (Brees had 392 and barely touched the ball in the 4th). I just don’t think NYG has been tested enough recently. I’m backing what most’ll call an upset here.

Wildcard’s Pick: Dallas improve by *just* enough to sneak a 3 point win

Denver Broncos (9-1) at New England Patriots (7-3)

	Tm	Age	QBrec	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	TD%	Int	Int%	Y/A	Y/C	Y/G	Rate	QBR	Sk	Yds	Sk%
Peyton Manning	DEN	37	9-1-0	286	409	69.9	3572	34	8.3	6	1.5	8.7	12.5	357.2	118.3	82.79	13	78	3.1
Tom Brady	NWE	36	7-3-0	223	380	58.7	2552	14	3.7	7	1.8	6.7	11.4	255.2	83.6	57.9	28	181	6.9

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/21/2013.

Compare these stats. Specifically the completion percentages, the TD passes and the yards per game. Peyton is having perhaps the best statistical year of his storied career. Tommy perhaps his worst. This has been the best QB rivalry for decades. Always worth watching. Brady has won 9 of the 13 head to heads between the two, but all signs are pointing in Peyton Manning’s direction here. Can New England’s damaged goods defence hold off the near unstoppable freight train of Denver? No they cannot. Can Tommy Terrific keep up with them? …maybe. But the performance of Denver on D against the Chiefs was frightening for the rest of the league. They aren’t near Seattle or even KC, but neither of those teams boasts the offensive threat of Denver. Superbowl favourites? Yeah, at this stage I think so. Brady will be relieved to see his receiving options getting back on the field. It’s gonna take a huge effort to win here though. New England’s own Superbowl window is alive as long as Brady is around but I don’t see them pulling it together this season.

Wildcard’s Pick: Denver by 7

San Francisco 49ers (6-4) at Washington Professional Football Team (3-7)

Imagine what a tasty matchup this must have seemed to the TV schedulers at the start of the year – Kap vs RGIII. Two of the most athletic QBs in the league, both of whom took their teams on playoff runs. But times do change. Unlike the R******s name. Although I read that Oklahoma literally means “Red People” (after the Chocktaw’s that lived there). Just another bunch of cylindrical invertebrates ready to escape from this can of worms. WHY MUST EQUALITY BE SO DIFFICULT? Maybe it’s a different story when the word is derived from the language of the oppressed in question. Or maybe we should just tell Edwin Starr that there’s no place today for peace, love and understanding. Wait, what was I talking about?

Wildcard’s Pick: Oh right. 49ers by 14

BYE: Buffalo Bills (4-7), Cincinnati Bengals (7-4), Philadelphia Eagles (6-5), Seattle Seahawks (10-1)

The Wildcard is a staff writer for The Niche Cache. Once a highly rated sports writing prospect coming out of college, a series of off-field incidents involving night clubs, Chinese food and thousands of dollars of illegally imported sunglasses sent him plummeting down draft boards. He is now reviving his career with these weekly NFL previews.