NFL Picks Week 7: Green Bay Packers and More Road Favorites Sure to Cover

While it's an inexact science, playing on the home field can certainly give the home team an advantage over its opponent. Playing at home doesn't guarantee anything, though. That much is apparent when looking at Week 7's spreads.

Normally the vast majority of home teams are favored, but that isn't the case this weekend as the better team seems to be the road team in most matchups. While some of those road teams are being given underdog status due to being away from home, some of the talent disparities are too great to ignore.

Here are three road favorites that are virtual locks to not only win in Week 7, but to cover the spread as well.

Baltimore Ravens

Aside from a bit of a hiccup against the Tennessee Titans Week 2, the 4-1 Baltimore Ravens have been extremely dominant. The Ravens have little trouble in blowing out what look to be pretty good teams in the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets and Houston Texans.

Few teams in the NFL are as complete as the Ravens, as they have perhaps the league's best defense and a very balanced offense that can do damage on the ground with running back Ray Rice or through the air with quarterback Joe Flacco.

The Ravens are often going to be significant favorites moving forward this season, and that is the case this week as they are favored by 8.5 points against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags kept it close against Pittsburgh last week, but Baltimore's defense should have little trouble exploiting rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and forcing him into mistakes.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Despite a healthy 4-2 record, many observers are worried about the state of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers weren't as dominant as they should have been in beating the Jacksonville Jaguars last week and there have been questions about their aging defense and porous offensive line.

Even so, the Steelers have found ways to win more often than not this season, and that is usually the case with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at the helm. Roethlisberger will lead the troops into Arizona this week to take on the Cardinals, where Pittsburgh will be favored by four points.

If not for being on the road the Steelers would likely be favored by much more against the 1-4 Cardinals. Arizona will be desperate for a win, but quarterback Kevin Kolb has been underwhelming this season and can be forced into bad decisions under pressure. Also, Roethlisberger should be able to exploit a very poor Arizona secondary.

Green Bay Packers

Entering the season the Green Bay Packers were considered to be the league's best team by most as the defending Super Bowl champions. It's nice to know our evaluation skills were right on the money in this case as the Packers have run roughshod over its competition thus far.

While the defense has had some deficiencies against the pass, it has been masked quite well by the incredible play of quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense. You can take Rodgers to the bank for 300 passing yards on a weekly basis, and he seems capable of reaching the end zone whenever his heart desires.

The Packers are nine-point favorites on the road against the Minnesota Vikings this weekend, and although that may seem like a big spread for a divisional game, the Pack should have no problem covering it. When you take Rodgers and put him in a dome against a struggling pass defense like the Vikings', the results are sure to be magical.