Game of the Week
L.A. Chargers at Las Vegas
If Indianapolis beats Jacksonville in Sunday’s early-game window, this AFC West match-up is winner-moves-on/loser-goes-home. The Chargers are a two-point favorite, but the Raiders have won three consecutive games (allowing 47 total points) and will hand-cuff Los Angeles’ offense.
Raiders 27, Chargers 24
Lock of the Week
Tennessee at Houston
The Titans are a 10 1/2-point favorite and at stake is the AFC’s No. 1 seed and a first-round playoff bye. Add in that Houston embarrassed them in the teams’ first meeting (22-23 in Week 11). Tennessee has allowed zero, 19, 17 and three points in its last four games (three wins).
Titans 40, Texans 13
Upset of the Week
Pittsburgh at Baltimore
The Steelers are a 5 1/2-point underdog and traveling to play a division game on a short week. We don’t care. There is no way Pittsburgh is going to lose quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s final game and it will take advantage of a fading Ravens team that will finish with six consecutive losses. Wow.
Steelers 23, Ravens 17
Around the AFC: Pittsburgh pass rusher T.J. Watt nears single-season sack record
Colts still alive. Indianapolis does like making it tough on itself. Last week, unvaccinated quarterback Carson Wentz missed the entire week of practice and the Colts were 3 of 11 on third down in a 23-20 loss to Las Vegas in which they fell into a 13-3 hole. Now 9-7, all they need to do is beat the Jaguars Sunday as a 15 1/2-point favorite, but they’ve lost six straight in Jacksonville. Wentz has 10 touchdowns and no interceptions in seven road games and can become the first quarterback to start eight road games in a season and not throw an interception.
Watt nears record. Pittsburgh outside linebacker T.J. Wattap pursuit of the single-season sack mark is a cool subplot Sunday. Watt has 21 1/2 sacks in 14 games (he missed two games), and is a half-sack from tying three players (the Jets’ Mark Gastineau in 1984, Minnesota’s Jared Allen in 2011 and Kansas City’s Justin Houston in ’14) and one sack from tying the Giants’ Michael Strahan (2001). The league began keeping sacks as an official statistic in 1982. The great Pro Football Reference site dug into the archives last summer to track sacks and it has Detroitap Al Baker as the all-time record holder (23 in 1978).
Jacksonville clown show. Upset with the reported decision by owner Shad Khan to retain general manager Trent Baalke, Jaguars fans are starting a movement to show up for Sunday’s game dressed as clowns. No, really. They long ago changed their Twitter avatar to a clown with a Khan-like mustache. No, really. What a debacle. Shoot, they didn’t even do that when I was covering seasons of 2-14, 4-12, 3-13, 5-11 and 3-13 from 2012-16. Keeping Baalke (the Jaguars are 2-30 since he joined the team) will remain a mystery until Khan either defends it or debunks the report.
Around the NFC: Everything should be on table to change in Minnesota
Vikings changes possible. Good thing for George Paton he left Minnesota last January to join the Broncos as general manager. Minnesota’s rollercoaster season — 1-3, 3-3, 3-5, 5-5, 5-7, 7-7 and now 7-9 — ends Sunday against Chicago and the Vikings could undergo sweeping changes, starting with coach Mike Zimmer. He appears out of answers, his defense is 31st in yards allowed (385.4) and 24th in points allowed (25.6) and the Vikings have only one leader (second-year receiver Justin Jefferson). Quarterback Kirk Cousins, safety Harrison Smith and running back Dalvin Cook missed games this year on the COVID-19/reserve list (all were unvaccinated). Cousins has a 2022 cap number of $45 million, so who would want to trade for him?
Cowboys better on road. Dallas (11-5) has won the NFC East so it will host at least one playoff game, but its preference should be to travel. The Cowboys are 5-3 at home, including a 30-16 thumping by the Broncos in November that wasn’t nearly as close as the score and last week’s 25-22 loss to Arizona in which they fell behind 22-7. There is a chance the Cardinals head back to Dallas for a first-round playoff game.
Bears job attractive … maybe. Chicago is expected to move on from coach Matt Nagy, but how attractive is the job? Over The Cap has the Bears with $40,935,664 of spending space, money the Bears will need to spend to upgrade their roster. Quarterback Justin Fields is the foundation of a rebuild, but who will be doing the rebuilding? If general manager Ryan Pace, for some reason, gets to hire a third coach, that could make the candidate pool shallower. Pairing a new general manager with a new coach is the best course.
