NFL Picks Week 15: What Indianapolis Colts and Every Team Must Do To Upset
As we inch ever closer to the NFL Playoffs, upsets and playoff berths are the primary things on the collective minds of most NFL teams.
We have some huge divisional games in Week 15 of the 2010 season, including an Indianapolis vs. Jacksonville showdown, the always great Dallas vs. Washington rivalry game, a Philadelphia vs. New York clash, and more.
Parity has abounded in the NFL this year so it's within the reasonable realm of possibilities that any team could win this week.
Read on to find out how each team could pull the upset.
(N.B. the favorites are considered the team with the better record. In case of ties, the standard NFL tie-breaking procedure will be applied.)
San Francisco 49ers
1 of 16
The 49ers take on the San Diego Chargers on Thursday.
To pull off the upset, Alex Smith will have to lead them to their second road win of the season as the 49ers are just 1-5 away from home.
They do however have lots of momentum after a dominant 40-21 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 14. San Francisco will need to capitalize on that momentum to have any shot in this one.
Alex Smith will also need to play efficiently without Frank Gore to help him out from the backfield.
Finally, Philip Rivers must be neutralized as the quarterback has been making a habit out of tearing apart opposing secondaries.
Indianapolis Colts
2 of 16
The Indianapolis Colts take on the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
To get the win, Peyton Manning must play like he did last week and not like he did in the three games before last week.
The perennial MVP candidate has the mindset to always play like a champion, but the question is whether or not his ragtag crew of receivers can keep up with him.
Indianapolis will also have to neutralize the Jaguars' ground game. Jacksonville had two 100-yard rushers last week against Oakland and will win if that happens again. Maurice Jones-Drew has had six consecutive 100-yard games and the offense clearly runs through him.
Cincinnati Bengals
3 of 16
The Cincinnati Bengals take on the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
To win this game the Bengals need to forget about the past, which has seen them lose an NFL-high 10 games.
The Bengals will need to hope that Jake Delhomme plays instead of Colt McCoy and then shut down Peyton Hillis, who has been an absolute beast of a running back lately.
On offense, the dynamic duo (at least in terms of talking ability) of Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens needs to get going.
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Dallas Cowboys
4 of 16
The Dallas Cowboys take on the Washington Redskins on Sunday.
This game would be an upset based on the records only if Dallas came out victorious.
The Cowboys have been playing much better ever since Jason Garrett took over as interim head coach. Jon Kitna has been a remarkable fill-in for Tony Romo and the offense has clicked and been in every single game since the coaching change.
Washington on the other hand has been slipping and not playing well at all.
Maybe the Cowboys need to make sure that Hunter Smith is involved in a few plays.
Tennessee Titans
5 of 16
The Tennessee Titans take on the Houston Texans on Sunday.
Houston beat Tennessee 20-0 just two weeks ago, but that was when Rusty Smith was playing quarterback for the Titans.
Now that Kerry Collins is back, the offense has a much better shot at putting up points.
The Titans need to take a little bit of confidence with them from last game after hanging with the Colts. Also, Chris Johnson needs to keep running well after gaining 111 yards last week.
Shutting down Andre Johnson and Arian Foster also needs to be a huge priority.
St. Louis Rams
6 of 16
The St. Louis Rams take on the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
For the Rams, their best shot at winning is if Brodie Croyle is forced into action again.
In other words, they need to keep their fingers crossed and hope that Matt Cassel isn't fully recovered from last week's appendectomy.
Buffalo Bills
7 of 16
The Buffalo Bills take on the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
For the Bills to escape with their fourth victory of the season they'll need to force Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne into making a few mistakes. Many teams have done that this season, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
The Dolphins may have beaten the Jets last week, but their offense still struggled. The defense was a different story.
Buffalo will need to get Steve Johnson going again and put up some early points against the run-oriented Dolphins.
New York Giants
8 of 16
The New York Giants take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
This may end up being the best game of the week as both teams are 9-4 and fighting for a playoff spot. The Eagles are the favorites here because they beat New York earlier in the season.
To change the outcome in the second edition, the Giants will first need to focus on neutralizing Michael Vick, or at least making him one-dimensional.
Then Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw need to keep running over and around defenders as they've been doing week in and week out.
Detroit Lions
9 of 16
The Detroit Lions take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
To pull of a second-straight big upset, Detroit needs to flex their defensive muscles for one more week. After holding Green Bay to just three points, similar success must be had against Josh Freeman and the Bucs.
Calvin Johnson also needs to make a few big plays, something which the Georgia Tech product is extremely capable of doing.
Carolina Panthers
10 of 16
The Carolina Panthers take on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
To score the upset, Carolina needs to revamp their roster, draft Andrew Luck, find a few good receivers, and develop a new defensive strategy.
Better hurry up on that one Carolina.
Baltimore Ravens
11 of 16
The Baltimore Ravens take on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
This wouldn't be a huge upset by any means, but beating the defending Super Bowl champions would still qualify as at least a slight upset.
To do so, Baltimore needs to focus on breaking up the Drew Brees-Marques Colston connection. The quarterback and receiver have been doing great things together lately and it's been a big reason for the Saints' success.
On offense, Joe Flacco needs to play efficiently and let Ray Rice do his thing.
Seattle Seahawks
12 of 16
The Seattle Seahawks take on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
To pull of the huge upset, the Seahawks need to beat Matt Ryan, Michael Turner and Roddy White. That won't be an easy task.
But if Matt Hasselbeck can't avoid turning the ball over, they may as well give up now.
Ball security and turnover-forcing has to be an absolute priority for Seattle.
Denver Broncos
13 of 16
The Denver Broncos take on the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
First of all, the Broncos need to find a way to slow down Darren McFadden. The running back is fresh off a three-touchdown performance against Jacksonville.
Then Kyle Orton needs to actually get going. The offense has been stagnant the last few weeks and a change in quarterbacks to Tim Tebow may be necessary.
If fact, switching to Tebow could give Denver the best chance of winning. It would catch Oakland by surprise and inspire the team.
New York Jets
14 of 16
The New York Jets take on the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
New York has been free-falling lately and has failed to score a touchdown in two straight games now. That obviously needs to change, but won't be easy against a tough Steelers defense.
Mark Sanchez needs to play like he was at the beginning of the season. He's been awful lately, even inspiring talks of a temporary quarterback change.
It's weird to think of New York as needing an upset to get back into the swing of things, but that's the situation that the Jets are faced with now.
Green Bay Packers
15 of 16
The Green Bay Packers take on the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Most importantly, Aaron Rodgers needs to recover quickly from his second concussion of the year and play. Matt Flynn will not be able to lead an upset of the Patriots.
Then the Packers offense needs to perform significantly better than last week's three-point debacle against the Detroit Lions.
Honestly though, to pull off this upset the Packers may need to play with 12 men on the field when they're playing defense.
Minnesota Vikings
16 of 16
The Minnesota Vikings take on the Chicago Bears on Monday.
Minnesota first needs to figure out who is going to play quarterback. Will Tavaris Jackson or Brett Favre take the snaps? Then, once that's decided, they need to actually have one of them look like a halfway-decent quarterback.
Adrian Peterson needs to do better than last week's 14-carry, 26-yard performance.
The defense needs to force Jay Cutler into a couple of interceptions at the very least.
They say that any team can win on any given Sunday, but what about Monday?
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