NFL Week 13 Picks: Teams That Are Safe Bet to Cover the Spread

A Thanksgiving tripleheader, a few key divisional matchups and an epic Monday night clash round out an important Week 13 schedule in the NFL. The oddsmakers have spoken their piece about each game, but which favorites are safe to trust to cover the spread?

Take a look at this breakdown of the safest bets among the chosen ones, as well as a prediction for each game on the schedule.

Thursday, Nov. 28	Time (ET)	TV	Line	Prediction
Sunday, Dec. 1	Time (ET)	TV	Line	Prediction
Monday, Nov. 30	Time (ET)	TV	Line	Prediction
Green Bay at Detroit	12:30 p.m.	Fox	Detroit -6.5	Green Bay 24, Detroit 20
Oakland at Dallas	4:30 p.m.	CBS	Dallas -10	Dallas 30, Oakland 23
Pittsburgh at Baltimore	8:30 p.m.	NBC	Baltimore -3	Pittsburgh 20, Baltimore 16
Jacksonville at Cleveland	1 p.m.	CBS	Cleveland -7	Cleveland 14, Jacksonville 7
Tennessee at Indianapolis	1 p.m.	CBS	Indianapolis -4	Indianapolis 23, Tennessee 17
Chicago at Minnesota	1 p.m.	Fox	Minnesota -1	Chicago 30, Minnesota 19
Miami at NY Jets	1 p.m.	CBS	NY Jets -1	Miami 21, NY Jets 14
Arizona at Philadelphia	1 p.m.	Fox	Philadelphia -3.5	Arizona 24, Philadelphia 14
Tampa Bay at Carolina	1 p.m.	Fox	Carolina -9	Carolina 16, Tampa Bay 10
New England at Houston	1 p.m.	CBS	New England -9	New England 40, Houston 20
Atlanta at Buffalo	4:05 p.m.	Fox	Buffalo -3.5	Atlanta 27, Buffalo 21
St. Louis at San Francisco	4:05 p.m.	Fox	N/A	San Francisco 17, St. Louis 9
Denver at Kansas City	4:25 p.m.	CBS	Denver -5	Denver 26, Kansas City 14
Cincinnati at San Diego	4:25 p.m.	CBS	N/A	San Diego 35, Cincinnati 30
NY Giants at Washington	8:30 p.m.	NBC	N.Y. Giants -1	NY Giants 26, Washington 14
New Orleans at Seattle	8:30 p.m.	ESPN	Seattle -6	Seattle 21, New Orleans 17

New England Will Defeat Houston Easily

The Houston Texans are done. The team's confidence and morale seem shot. When normally laid back players like Andre Johnson are arguing with teammates, per Drew Dougherty of HoustonTexans.com, and telling ESPN's Tania Ganguli "we suck," it tells you just how far the team has fallen.

Perhaps Week 12's loss was rock bottom when the Texans did what was once the unthinkable: lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars...at home. To think that Johnson and Co. were held to only six points is simply depressing if you're a Texans fan.

Fast forward to Sunday's game against the New England Patriots and just imagine what the final score will look like. The Pats are flying high after a monumental comeback win in Foxboro over the Denver Broncos in Week 12. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won't allow the team to take the wounded Texans lightly.

In fact, it is more like them to stomp the remaining life out of Houston's season rather than allow themselves to become the victims of the Texans' makeshift Super Bowl.

Houston has lost eight games in a row, and with Arian Foster out for the season, per NFL.com's Ken Patra, the team simply doesn't have the healthy backs to take advantage of the Pats' 31st-ranked run defense. New England will easily cover the nine points it's favored by.

New York Giants Will Continue Their Sneaky Late-Season Push

The Giants lost a big game at home on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. With a chance to pull even in the season series against their division rivals, the Giants fell 24-21. Not only did the team fall a full two games behind the Cowboys in the standings, but the loss assured the Cowboys of owning an important tiebreaker over the Giants should the two teams finish with the same record at the end of the regular season.

That said, the Giants are still just two games behind the Philadelphia Eagles and Cowboys in the NFC East standings. Tom Coughlin again has the G-Men poised to at least make the last five weeks of the season interesting.

On Sunday, the Giants will travel to FedEx Field to take on the struggling and disappointing Washington Redskins. Per Bovada's latest line, the Giants are favored by one point. This obviously isn't much of a spread to cover, and here's why the Giants are good for it.

The Redskins are overly dependent on the run game. It seems clear that head coach Mike Shanahan doesn't trust Robert Griffin III and the team's passing game to produce early in games. In the last four weeks, RG3 is averaging just 6.75 pass attempts in the first quarter. Those are the totals of a game manager, not a franchise quarterback.

Washington does have the second-best run game in the NFL, but the offense isn't stretching the field consistently or keeping opposing defenses off-balance. Thus, the Skins' overall offensive yardage totals have declined every game over the last four weeks.

In Week 9 against the San Diego Chargers, the Skins offense produced 500 total yards in a 24-21 overtime win. Since then, the numbers have descended steadily. On Monday night, Washington's offense could only muster a total of 190 yards against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Giants have the seventh-ranked run defense in the NFL. It will keep Washington from running wild on the ground, and it seems Shanahan will keep the Redskins' passing game grounded. The G-Men will get back on track with a win on the road.

Inconsistent Indianapolis Colts Will Keep the Tennessee Titans at a Distance

The Colts are a tough team to figure out. The same squad that handed the 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos losses has also lost by 30 points at home to the St. Louis Rams and by 29 against the Arizona Cardinals in the last three weeks.

Because of that, it's easy to understand why Indy is only favored by four points at home against the Titans. Despite the Colts' recent struggles, the team holds a two-game lead over the Titans in the division. A win would give Indy a three-game lead with just four games to play and a season sweep of the Titans.

The common factor in both of the Colts' blowout losses is an absence of a formidable running game. If you subtract the scrambles by Andrew Luck, the Colts' running game produced a total of 30 yards in the games combined.

It is hard to win in the NFL with that lack of production on the ground.

Fortunately for the Colts, the Titans don't have a run defense on par with Arizona and St. Louis. The Cardinals have the second-best run defense in the NFL, and the Rams have really stepped it up in that regard of late. In the last four games, St. Louis is allowing just 73 yards per game on the ground.

Tennessee's run defense is ranked just 18th, and when the two teams met in Nashville in Week 11, the Colts put up 137 yards on the ground. Donald Brown had 80 yards and two touchdowns. As the Colts are able to establish themselves on the ground, the play-action pass should be open for Luck to have success through the air.

Indy will get back in the win column and remove almost all the drama from the division race in the AFC South.