NFL Week 13 Picks: Super Bowl Contenders Guaranteed to Dominate

As the calendar flips to December, we are starting to get a much more firm grasp on who the real Super Bowl contenders are and which teams are just fooling themselves.  Week 13 is going to be a time for the cream of the NFL crop to shine.

This is the time when we find out what teams are really made of.  Sure, all the games leading up to this month have mattered, but now is the time for them to really separate from the pack. 

Great teams can overcome the dog days of December, while others find themselves fatigued and unable to overcome adversity to win games and make a playoff push. 

Here are three Super Bowl contenders that will make bold statements in Week 13. 

Green Bay Packers (-7.5) vs. New York Giants

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame one me.  I bet against the Packers on Thanksgiving and will never do it again, at least not this year.

Aaron Rodgers has been too good; we have run out of superlatives to describe him and the way he has played.

The defense is still giving up yardage, but it has gotten better at keeping teams from getting into the end zone.

The Giants are crumbling at the seams.  The offense has lost its way because there is no running game, and Eli Manning has not been able to carry the load all by himself.

Defensively, they don’t create the pressure that they used to when they were one of the most feared units in the NFL.

If you can’t pressure Rodgers, he will pick you apart.  The Giants will be staring at a four-game losing streak after this week.

Packers 35, Giants 21

St. Louis Rams vs. San Francisco 49ers (-14)

Let’s call last week’s game against the Ravens what it was for the 49ers—a tired team that ran into a dominant defense.

Things will get back to normal for Jim Harbaugh’s team this week; they can clinch the NFC West with a victory at home against the lowly Rams.

The 49ers will have had nine days to prepare for this game by the time it kicks off, and you know that they want to prove the skeptics wrong. 

It doesn’t matter who they are playing, this is going to be the kind of game that reminds us why they are the second-best team in the NFC.

49ers 27, Rams 10

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (-7)

As a non-partisan observer, I would like to go on record saying it would be in the best interest of the NFL for the Bengals to win this game.  It would create all sorts of chaos with the wild-card spots in the AFC.

That being said, I don’t think the Bengals are at the level of the Steelers or the Ravens in the AFC North.  We have seen them play both these teams in recent weeks; they came up a little bit short both times.

The Steelers did not light the world on fire against Kansas City last week, but this team does not have to play pretty to win games.

This is going to be a hard-hitting, smashmouth game that will leave both teams physically and emotionally drained.

Steelers 24, Bengals 17