NFL Week 9 Picks: Identifying Teams Guaranteed to Lose

There are a number of hard-to-pick contests on the Week 9 slate, but there are also games that are clearly over before they even began, especially for three struggling teams.

The Cleveland Browns travel to Houston to take on the Texans in a mismatch of talents. The Texans are the team the Browns hoped they'd be this season, but instead they've fallen flat.

Injuries have decimated their ground game, inconsistencies (and quarterback Colt McCoy's weak arm) are plaguing their passing game, and their defense is nowhere near the caliber everyone had predicted it would be prior to this season. They have practically no chance against the Texans this Sunday.

But the Indianapolis Colts have less than no chance in Week 9, as they host the Atlanta Falcons. Practically each team in the league is better in every way than the 0-8 Colts, who seem to find new ways to lose a game every week—most recently outgaining the Tennessee Titans on the ground and in the air, yet still falling 27-10.

It would take quite the comedy of errors for the 4-3 Falcons to drop to the winless Colts this Sunday, and I'm not certain that the Falcons could even force themselves to play as badly as they'd have to to lose this game.

Similarly, the San Francisco 49ers take on the Washington Redskins in yet another Week 9 mismatch. The Niners sit at 6-1 and tops of the NFC West, while the Redskins are collapsing, dropping three straight after starting their season at 3-1.

There's just not the talent on the Redskins roster to defeat the surprisingly strong 49ers, who boast one of the most well-rounded squads in the NFL. From rushing to passing and from stopping the run to defending the pass, San Francisco will simply be too much for Washington to handle this Sunday.