NFL Week 9 Picks: Elite Teams Ready to Cement Status on Separation Sunday

Forget about the teams in the "muddled middle" or the "blundersome bottom" of the NFL. Let's take a moment to savor the elite teams, the "one-percenters," who figure to occupy the top seeds in the NFC and the AFC some playoff time.

With wins in Week 9, the league's cream of the crop will move that much closer to etching themselves into the books as the teams to beat in 2011.

Green Bay Packers

The Packers have had a few tough games here and there (Week 1 versus the Saints, Week 2 at the Panthers, Week 7 at the Vikings), but they have yet to play a quality opponent in a wholly unfamiliar road environment this season.

Depending on how you feel about the Chargers, that will change on Sunday, when Green Bay takes its Super Bowl defense to San Diego. The Bolts have struggled of late, losing their last two games on the road, but they still maintain a slight grasp on the AFC West.

This, amidst a career-low season for Philip Rivers, thanks to a bevy of talent that still don those powder blue unis from time to time.

Then again, no team can quite match up with the sort of talent, at least on offense, that the Packers have in droves. As good as Aaron Rodgers is, the depth at the skill positions with which he has to work, among them Donald Driver, Greg Jennings and Jermichael Finley, makes his job that much easier.

Which figures to be a theme against a Chargers defense that, though respectable, can't contend for an entire game with what Green Bay brings to the table.

San Francisco 49ers

Winning in Washington in this day and age may not exactly be a sign that you belong, but it would give San Francisco an iron-grip stranglehold on the NFC West and the No. 2 seed in the conference playoffs that likely comes with it. A win by the 49ers over a Redskins team that lost 23-0 to the Bills in Toronto last week, combined with a loss by the Seahawks to the Cowboys in Dallas, would give Jim Harbaugh's boys a four-game lead in the division at the halfway point of the season—far and away the biggest cushion enjoyed by any team in football.

Of course, victory isn't exactly assured for the Niners, not when their pass defense ranks just 21st in the NFL through seven games...

Until you realize that DC will be trotting out John Beck under center and that head coach Mike Shanahan, known primarily for his love of running the ball, will be hard-pressed to find any such room against the NFL's stingiest rush defense.

Another mistake-free game by Alex Smith and, oh, 80 or 90 yards by Frank Gore on the ground should be more than enough to get the job done.

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers have the opportunity to do so many things on Sunday by doing just one thing: beating the Ravens.

For one, by beating Baltimore at home, Pittsburgh will finally have avenged that embarrassing 35-7 debacle with which they opened the season. A win on Sunday would also, as always, give the likes of Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu the satisfaction of having once again beating their arch nemeses from the Beltway.

And, most importantly, should the Steelers succeed in shutting down this rocky Ravens team, they would open up a game-and-a-half lead over Baltimore in the division while at least holding off the hard-charging Bengals by a half game.

Just long enough to make a Week 10 trip to Cincinnati that much more pivotal.