Week 14 NFL Picks: Home Teams Sure to Come out on Top

With the NFL season heading for the home stretch, top teams are playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs while others are just trying to get in. This trio will use home-field advantage in Week 14 to move one win closer to their postseason goals:

Green Bay Packers (vs. Oakland)

The unbeaten Packers can be stopped, but not by a Raiders team missing its best player. RB Darren McFadden is out again with a lingering foot injury, and without him Oakland has no hope of slowing down Green Bay.

The Raiders’ unremarkable pass defense was already fighting an uphill battle against Aaron Rodgers’ dazzling aerial show. Without McFadden to keep the ball out of Rodgers’ hands, Oakland has no way to keep up on the scoreboard and no hope of an upset win.

Baltimore Ravens (vs. Indianapolis)

On the opposite end from the Packers, we have the winless Colts, who have little incentive to turn around a laughably bad season. One win wouldn’t hurt their chances at the coveted Andrew Luck draft pick, but that win won’t be forthcoming against playoff-bound Baltimore.

The Ravens have suffered some bad upsets this season, but all of those have come on the road. At home, with Ray Rice pounding the ball against Indy’s pitiful excuse for a run defense, Baltimore will have this one in the bag by halftime.

Denver Broncos (vs. Chicago)

Tim Tebow may be red-hot (despite all logic to the contrary), but his performance will have little to do with Denver’s chances against the Bears. Instead, the game will be decided by a Chicago offense that has seen essentially all its production sidelined by injuries.

With Jay Cutler and Matt Forte both out of action, it’s hard to imagine the Bears managing more than an occasional first down in this game. A week after posting three points at home against Kansas City, they’ll be lucky even to match that in Denver.