Week 12 of the NFL season was certainly one of the longest of 2020 thanks to a COVID-19 outbreak that forced the Baltimore-Pittsburgh game to be pushed from U.S. Thanksgiving on Nov. 26 to Dec. 2.
I also had a nice turnaround with my weekly picks, going 7-9 against the spread and 12-4 straight up.
Week 13 brings us some mouth-watering matchups so let’s get it on.
Cincinnati Bengals at Miami Dolphins (-11) No Joe Burrow for the Bengals, no chance. Not against Miami’s defence. This was supposed to be a showcase of the two most-hyped QBs in the draft but Burrow is gone for the rest of the year with a knee injury and Dolphins rookie Tua Tagovailoa missed his last outing with a bad thumb. Miami 30-16
New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons (+3) New Orleans blasted Atlanta 24-9 a couple of weeks ago in Taysom Hill’s first career start at quarterback for the 9-2 Saints, who are the top seed in the NFC. The 4-7 Falcons are coming off a lopsided win over Las Vegas and even though they are out of the playoff picture I think Matt Ryan and his mates are primed to pull off an upset at home. Atlanta 27-24
Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears (-3) The Bears have lost five straight games. The Lions have dropped their last two and just fired head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn. Detroit has also lost their last five meetings against the Bears. Flip a coin, I guess. Chicago 20-19
Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans (+3) The suddenly hot Texans are winners of three of their last four games and QB DeShaun Watson has thrown 15 touchdowns and no interceptions in his last six games. The Colts are coming off an embarrassing loss against Tennessee in which they allowed 449 yards on offence. Indy wins with a last second field goal. Indianapolis 24-23
Las Vegas Raiders at New York Jets (+7.5) The 6-5 Raiders are fighting for their playoff lives as they make the cross country trek to take on the 0-11 Jets. Las Vegas is coming off a bad loss in Atlanta while New York is just plain bad. Las Vegas 27-17
Cleveland Browns at Tennessee Titans (-5.5) This is the game of the week. Two 8-win teams in the AFC that rely heavily on their dazzling running attack. Derrick Henry vs. Nick Chubb should be fun to watch. Tennessee 27-21
Jacksonville Jaguars at Minnesota Vikings (-9) Vikes running back Dalvin Cook, who’s second in the league with 1,130 rushing yards, is licking his chops at the thought of facing Jacksonville’s 29th ranked run defence. And, oh ya, the Jags have lost 10 straight. Minnesota 30-17
Los Angeles Rams at Arizona Cardinals (+3) The Rams are 6-0 against Arizona since Sean McVay became the head coach in L.A. The Cardinals have fallen to 6-5 after two straight losses and don’t seem to be as dangerous on offence as they showed back in Week 10 versus Buffalo. L.A. Rams 23-21
New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks (-10) It appears that Colt McCoy will start at QB for the Giants after Daniel Jones suffered a hamstring injury last week. That’s bad news for New York because the Seahawks have played much better on defence the last three weeks. Seattle 34-14
Philadelphia Eagles at Green Bay Packers (-9) This has mismatch written all over it. Aaron Rodgers has thrown an NFL-leading 33 touchdowns this season compared to the 16 that Philly’s Carson Wentz has managed to record in 2020. The Packers are going to run away with this one. Green Bay 31-20
New England Patriots at Los Angeles Chargers (pick) Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn put his foot in his mouth on Wednesday when he told reporters that “the playoff hunt probably isn’t going to happen.” L.A. is 3-8 and obviously won’t make the post-season but Lynn just paved the way for his players to let their guard down. Bill Belichick and the Patriots take advantage. New England 28-24.
Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs (-14) Drew Lock returns as Denver’s starting QB after the team was forced to use receiver Kendall Hinton after all four Broncos quarterbacks were forced to quarantine due to possible COVID-19 exposure. It doesn’t matter who starts for Denver, MVP favourite Patrick Mahomes and the 10-1 Chiefs are riding high. Kansas City 35-16
Washington Football Team at Pittsburgh Steelers (-10) The Steelers improved to 11-0 despite a lackluster performance against Baltimore on Wednesday. Now they play Washington, who last played on American Thanksgiving. The visitors might be more rested, but Pittsburgh has much more to play for. Pittsburgh 30-17
Buffalo Bills at San Francisco 49ers (+2) Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the 49ers are being forced to played this ‘home game’ in Arizona. Buffalo’s last game at the Cardinals stadium, back in Week 10, ended in a last second loss thanks to a Kyler Murray to DeAndre Hopkins Hail Mary. The Bills get a small bit of redemption. Buffalo 24-20
Dallas Cowboys at Baltimore Ravens (-7) This game will be played on Tuesday night thanks to the COVID-19 related schedule shuffling the NFL had to perform after an outbreak hit the Ravens. Dallas is coming off an atrocious performance on U.S. Thanksgiving and will face a 6-5 Ravens team that is desperately trying to stay in the AFC playoff race. Baltimore 30-21
Overall straight up 115-64-1
Overall against the spread 70-104-3
Rick Zamperin is the assistant program, news and senior sports director at Global News Radio 900 CHML.
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