NFL Picks Week 13: Advice on Latest Vegas Odds and Spreads for Upcoming Schedule

The 2016 NFL season sure is rolling along. Week 12 is now officially over and Week 13 is mere days away. Let's take a look ahead at the upcoming schedule and what the oddsmakers are thinking.

There are definitely some interesting—and unpredictable—games looming on the Week 13 slate. Can the Tampa Bay Buccaneers continue their winning ways on the road against the San Diego Chargers? Will the Denver Broncos be able to bounce back from Sunday's brutal overtime loss? Do the struggling Cincinnati Bengals have enough fight left in them to knock off the Philadelphia Eagles?

We'll be examining all 15 games on the Week 13 slate along with the early Vegas lines, courtesy of Odds Shark. We will also be making our picks against the spread based on factors like past performances, matchups and team health. Then we'll dive into some of the more intriguing contests of the week.

How do we believe Week 13 is going to unfold? That's what we're going to determine now.

NFL Week 13

Game	Line	National TV	Prediction
Dallas at Minnesota	DAL -3.5	NFL Network, NBC, Twitter	DAL
Detroit at New Orleans	NO -5.5	Fox	NO
Los Angeles at New England	NE -13.5	Fox	NE
Kansas City at Atlanta	ATL -3.5	CBS	ATL
Denver at Jacksonville	DEN -5	CBS	DEN
Houston at Green Bay	GB -4.5	CBS	GB
Miami at Baltimore	BAL -3.5	CBS	BAL
Philadelphia at Cincinnati	PHI -2.5	Fox	PHI
San Francisco at Chicago	CHI -2.5	Fox	CHI
Buffalo at Oakland	OAK -3	CBS	OAK
Washington at Arizona	ARI -2.5	Fox	WAS
NY Giants at Pittsburgh	PIT -6	Fox	PIT
Tampa Bay at San Diego	SD -4	Fox	SD
Carolina at Seattle	SEA -6.5	NBC	CAR
Indianapolis at NY Jets	IND -1	ESPN	IND

Matchups to Watch

Joe Mahoney/Associated Press

Kansas City Chiefs at Atlanta Falcons

The Kansas City Chiefs managed to survive the Denver Broncos at Mile High on Sunday—in a game that went until the end of overtime. This is a dangerous Chiefs team, and one that should be carrying a lot of momentum out of Sunday's big win.

There's no time for Kansas City to relax and take in the victory, though. The Chiefs must turn right around and battle another potential playoff team in Week 13 when the team travels to take on the Atlanta Falcons.

The Falcons are coming off an important win of their own. Atlanta managed to do enough against a stingy Arizona Cardinals defense—one that is rated second overall by Pro Football Focus—to come away with a 38-19 victory.

The Chiefs defense is a playoff-caliber unit, but corralling the Atlanta offense is going to be a difficult task. Even more challenging could be the team's quest to keep pace with the Falcons on the scoreboard.

Kansas City is averaging a subpar 22.9 points per game (16th in the NFL) and is rated 25th in overall offense by Pro Football Focus. The Chiefs do have weapons and can create mismatches on offense, but the Falcons are possibly the most explosive team in the league.

The Falcons, who are averaging an NFL-best 32.5 points per game, should have the advantage in this one. However, as the team showed against Denver, Kansas City is good enough to go toe-to-toe with almost any team and come out on top.

We'll take the Falcons to win, but this could easily be a close game.

Los Angeles Rams at New England Patriots

The game between the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots is an interesting one based on the large margin being predicted by the oddsmakers. Earlier in the season, the Los Angeles defense was playing well enough that any significant line would cause hesitation. 

However, the Rams defense—which is still rated fifth overall for the season by Pro Football Focus—has been exposed recently. It was outright embarrassed by the New Orleans Saints, who put up 49 points against the Rams this past Sunday.

The Rams, to their credit, don't appear to have been broken by the staggering loss.

“We just have to keep fighting, man,” Rams running back Todd Gurley said, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. “No matter what the record is, you don’t want to go out like little punks. Just keep fighting, try to win game after game, control what you can control. Move on from this so we can get ready for the Patriots."

These Patriots, though, are going to present a tough challenge for Los Angeles. While New England might not be quite as dangerous offensively as the Saints, it would be completely inaccurate to say that Tom Brady and Co. aren't dangerous in their own right.

The Patriots are averaging 26.6 points per game and are rated fourth in overall offense by Pro Football Focus.

While L.A. might not get humiliated the way the team did in New Orleans last week, we do believe the Patriots can win this matchup big at home.

Miami Dolphins at Baltimore Ravens

Gail Burton/Associated Press

When the Miami Dolphins travel to take on the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday, it could easily be a preview of a future playoff matchup. The 6-5 Ravens are sitting atop the AFC North standings, while the 7-4 Dolphins are battling to control a wild-card spot—or possibly catch the 9-2 Patriots in the AFC East.

Miami will host the Patriots in their regular-season finale.

The reason this game should be hotly contested is the matchup between the hard-running Miami offense and the smothering Ravens defense.

Miami has gone on a winning streak since allowing second-year back Jay Ajayi to take center stage in the offense. The team now ranks sixth in the NFL with 116 yards rushing per game, and the Dolphins have ripped off six wins in a row.

The Ravens defense, though, represents a virtual mountain in Miami's planned path to victory. Baltimore is allowing an NFL-low 74.9 yards rushing per game and is rated sixth in overall defense by Pro Football Focus.

This game could well come down to Baltimore's ability to move the ball on Miami's defense, and Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill's ability to supplement the running game. Tannehill—who is completing 66 percent of his passes and holds a passer rating of 94.7—seems to be finding his way under new head coach Adam Gase. It would be unwise for the Ravens to overlook him.

That underrated Miami defense, by the way, is rated 12th overall by Pro Football Focus.

We'd give the advantage here to the Ravens, especially at home. However, this should be an incredibly close game.

If the Dolphins can find a way to break the Baltimore run defense, they'll have every opportunity to come out on top and continue their winning streak.