NFL Week 13 Predictions: Ravens and Division Leaders Who Will Reign Supreme

It's always good to be the king in the NFL, especially now that we're headed down the home stretch of the 2011 season.

That doesn't figure to change in Week 13, with these members of football royalty earning victories by decree.

Baltimore Ravens

The awkwardness of the twice-yearly meetings between the old Cleveland Browns (a.k.a. the Baltimore Ravens) and the new Cleveland Browns has seemingly subsided in recent years, giving way instead to the dominance of the former outfit over the latter.

Colt McCoy's Browns have stunk it up of late, losing four of their last five games, though they did show signs of life against the Bengals last week.

Still, beating the Ravens requires much more than just a pulse, a fact to which even the San Francisco 49ers can now attest. This won't be a particularly pretty game for either time, but expect Baltimore's defense to wreak quite a bit of havoc on one the league's worst offenses on Sunday.

San Francisco 49ers

Speaking of the 49ers, they won't let last week's setback in Baltimore set them back against the Rams in what used to be one of the NFL's great rivalries. St. Louis may be without quarterback Sam Bradford and defensive end Chris Long, both of whom sat out practice once again on Thursday.

Whether they play or not, the 2-9 Rams don't stand much of a chance against Jim Harbaugh's boys in San Fran. A completion by Alex Smith here, a few nice runs by Frank Gore there and this one will be over before you can say, "Steve Spagnuolo is a lame duck."

Green Bay Packers

If the Packers don't go 16-0 this season, most fans will likely direct their anger at the Ravens.

Huh?

Well, had the Ravens not beaten the Niners, the Packers would still only be one game ahead of San Fran in pursuit of the top seed in the NFC. Instead, Green Bay has a two-game cushion on home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Granted, that has absolutely nothing to do with the Packers game against the Giants this week, during which there will be approximately 1,587 references to Aaron Rodgers' greatness/comparisons between A-Rod and Eli Manning.

Not to mention an on-field comparison between a team that can do no wrong and another that can do no right in the second half of the season.