Week 13 was one of those weeks where I didn’t have to worry about my pick, Seattle took care of business against undrafted rookie QB Brosmer. I was cheering for chaos, especially the Raiders to pull the upset of the Chargers. I didn’t get that result, but the Panthers did upset the 10 point favorite Rams at home and that knocked out nearly 6% of remaining contestants.

Moving on to week 14, the options are getting limited. Trying to keep one eye on the rest of the season and the other eye on week 14 isn’t easy. It makes me feel like I’m getting ahead of myself, but really just trying to work out a long term strategy so I can maximize my remaining picks.

There are 7 games with lines of 5.5 or more in week 14. I doubt many selections will be on the Packers at home against Chicago. The Bears are a hot team right now, and they found their coach in Ben Johnson. I’m still not afraid of Bears QB Williams, but the running attack is looking solid and the defense is starting to shape up.

Seattle is a big favorite at Atlanta, and will probably have a few people picking them. The Falcons offense is not playing well and the Seahawks defense is quite stout. However, I took Seattle last week, so that’s not an option for me. The Rams at Arizona could be a good option. Hard to see LA Rams losing 2 in a row, and the Cardinals just stated QB Murray won’t return this season. But the Rams are a divisional road team, so I’m staying away from them.

Looking at a shorter line, I could see some people tempted to take Cleveland at home against Tennessee. It makes sense, Browns DE Garrett will probably sack QB Ward a dozen times in this game. However, I have the Browns rated as the 27th team in the league, which is just a handful of spots ahead of Tennessee. This is still the NFL and anything crazy can happen.

I’m turning to the NFC South for my week 14 selection. Tampa Bay hosts New Orleans and is favored by 8.5 points. I don’t normally like to play divisional matchups, but sometimes you have to make exceptions. The Buccaneers are starting to get healthy on offense, and QB Mayfield is getting a lot of receiving weapons back. The Saints defense is average, and might struggle to slow down Tampa Bays offense. However, the Saints offense has struggled to get going this season, and has experienced a lot of injuries along the offensive line and at running back. They also traded away deep threat Shaheed, and Olave might miss this game due to injury. I have Tampa Bays defense rated 6th in the league, so this is not the week the Saints explode offensively. Finally, Tampa Bay’s HC Bowles is 6-1 in December the last 2 seasons.

What teams are you taking this week and why? Let me know in the comments.