NFL Week 14 Predictions: Projections for the Early Lines, Spreads and Odds

Week 13 of the 2016 NFL season is almost over, and we're heading into the final month with plenty of playoff questions unanswered.

So far, the 11-1 Dallas Cowboys are the only team to have secured a playoff spot. They did so by beating the Minnesota Vikings this past Thursday and watching the Washington Redskins lose on Sunday. Teams like the Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs did take another step toward the postseason, though, with Week 13 victories.

Which teams are going to continue their playoff marches in Week 14? We're going to try determining that right here. We'll be running down the Week 14 schedule and the latest Vegas odds—courtesy of OddsShark.com—and making our picks against them.

We will also examine some of the top matchups of the week. There will be 16 games in all, as bye-week season is over.

Week 14 NFL Schedule

Game	Line	Projection
Oakland at Kansas City	KC -3	KC
Washington at Philadelphia	WAS -1	WAS
Minnesota at Jacksonville	MIN -3	MIN
Chicago at Detroit	DET -7.5	CHI
Cincinnati at Cleveland	CIN -4	CIN
Arizona at Miami	MIA -2.5	MIA
Houston at Indianapolis	IND -4.5	IND
Denver at Tennessee	TEN -1.5	DEN
San Diego at Carolina	CAR -3	SD
Pittsburgh at Buffalo	PIT -2.5	PIT
NY Jets at San Francisco	SF -1	NYJ
New Orleans at Tampa Bay	TB -2.5	TB
Atlanta at Los Angeles	ATL -5	ATL
Seattle at Green Bay	SEA -2.5	SEA
Dallas at NY Giants	DAL -3	DAL
Baltimore at New England	NE -7.5	BAL

Matchups to Watch

Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs

Week 14 kicks off on Thursday night with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Oakland Raiders. Not only does this game have the potential to be the best non-Thanksgiving Thursday game of the year, but it has major playoff consequences.

The 10-2 Raiders are thriving, especially on offense—that unit is rated third overall by Pro Football Focus. Oakland has thus far managed to keep pace with the vaunted New England Patriots atop the conference standings.

If the season ended today, the Raiders would hold the AFC's No. 1 seed.

The Chiefs can put a huge damper on Oakland's efforts with a win on Thursday, however, and Kansas City isn't just playing the role of spoiler. The 9-3 Chiefs are sitting right behind the Raiders in the AFC West and would actually move into first place in the division with a win.

Kansas City already owns one head-to-head win over Oakland and a perfect 3-0 divisional mark.

While it's worth noting that the Raiders have begun to take strides on the defensive side of the ball, Oakland is first and foremost an offensive team. The Chiefs, who average 23.4 points per game and allow 20.2 points per game, are a more balanced team.

Consider the fact that the Chiefs just went into Atlanta and managed to steal a win from a talented Falcons team. Now Kansas City returns home with momentum to take on a hated rival on a short week.

Our guess is that the Chiefs prevail and completely shake up the AFC playoff picture by doing so.

Denver Broncos at Tennessee Titans

Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

A fellow AFC West team, the Denver Broncos, also moved into postseason position with a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. The team now sits at 8-4 and would hold the final wild-card spot if the season ended today.

The offense for Denver hasn't been especially consistent this season, but the defense has been outstanding. The defense, which is rated first overall by Pro Football Focus, did enough to lift the Broncos to victory over Jacksonville.

That victory came with rookie Paxton Lynch under center and with just 104 yards passing to his credit. Not far into Sunday's action, NFL Live's Trey Wingo offered a thought on Denver's QB situation:

The offense wasn't pretty with Lynch manning the helm, but the Broncos seem to take confidence out of the team's ability to win ugly thus far.

"You look around at a lot of teams, they've played their best games," Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. explained, per Andrew Mason of the team's official website. "They're hot. A lot of teams are hot. We haven't gotten there yet. That shows us we have a lot of improvement to make."

In Week 14, the Broncos will have to travel to take on a much tougher Tennessee Titans team, though. The 6-6 Titans are still in the AFC South race and have played relatively well on both sides of the ball this season.

Pro Football Focus rates Tennessee fifth in overall offense and 23rd in overall defense for the season so far.

This game could come down to the availability of starting Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian.

"He's out of the boot and walking around," Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak said of Siemian after Sunday's win, per George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel. "It's a day-to-day process."

Tennessee can likely produce on offense where the Jaguars could not. If Lynch plays and plays poorly again, the Titans should have the advantage. That Denver defense should be enough to keep the game close and potentially pull out the victory, especially if Siemian is able to return.

Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants

As we mentioned earlier, the Cowboys have already punched their ticket to the postseason. However, Dallas hasn't yet locked up the NFC East due to the persistence of the 8-4 New York Giants.

The Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13, which really hurt the team's chances of closing the gap on Dallas with a month remaining. However, the team still has a slim shot at doing exactly that. However, it will need a win next week in order to get the ball rolling.

Part of the reason why the Giants still have a chance is the fact they are the team that has handed Dallas its only loss of 2016. If New York can win out while the Cowboys drop three of their final four, the Giants could be NFC East champs.

It feels unlikely that New York is going to pull off the daunting task, though, especially after Sunday's loss to Pittsburgh. The Giants surrendered 24 points to a Steelers offense that is rated 10th overall by Pro Football Focus. The Cowboys are rated first overall.

New York's offense simply doesn't appear to be playing well enough to keep pace, as indicated by NFL.com's Chris Wesseling:

The Cowboys will also be coming off a 10-day break and riding the momentum that comes from a close, tough victory against a good defense on the road.

Besides, that loss the Giants handed to the Cowboys feels like a lifetime ago. It came in the first week of the season, and this confident, seemingly unstoppable Dallas team feels a whole lot different than it did back then.

Our guess is that the Cowboys win and secure their division title in Week 14.