NFL Week 15 Picks: Predicting Teams Due for a Loss

With the postseason rapidly approaching, many teams cannot afford a single loss if they want to keep their playoff dreams alive.

Unfortunately for some of them, they probably won't win in Week 15. Considering that every game has a winner and a loser (barring the rare tie), it's guaranteed that half of all the teams in the NFL will end their week on a down note.

Here are four teams who I think won't escape their games with a victory this week.

Philadelphia Eagles (vs. New York Jets)

The Philadelphia Eagles convincingly defeated the Miami Dolphins in Week 14, so much so that it resulted in the firing of Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano.

The Eagles really needed that win as well; the 2011 season hasn't gone as the team had planned, with the one-time postseason favorites practically eliminated from playoff contention by midseason.

At 5-8, the best that Philadelphia can hope for is to end their year at .500, but with the New York Jets coming to town this Sunday, it doesn't seem likely to happen.

The Jets, while shaky this year—they've alternated between winning and losing streaks all season long—are built for the playoffs, and this season should prove no different.

They're already well on their way to securing a wild-card postseason berth, winning their last three games by putting up increasingly greater points while holding opponents to fewer every week.

Though the Eagles are coming off of a win and have components on both sides of the ball that should make things tough for the Jets, Philadelphia just isn't strong enough nor reliable enough to earn a victory this week.

All it takes is an interception or two of Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick to put the Eagles offense in shambles; the Jets defense shouldn't have much trouble doing so this week, and thus, Philadelphia will fall at home for the sixth time this year.

Minnesota Vikings (vs. New Orleans Saints)

The 2-11 Minnesota Vikings are off to their worst start in team history, thanks to a rotating cast at quarterback, a lack of viable receiving options and just plain bad luck.

Eight of their losses came by a margin of seven points or fewer, many of them coming from late-game fumbles and interceptions.

The turnover issue became a major problem for the team in their Week 14 loss against the Detroit Lions, with quarterback Christian Ponder throwing three picks and losing a fumble before being benched in favor of backup Joe Webb.

Though this was just a single-game phenomenon, with Ponder remaining the team's starter, things shouldn't go much better this week when the Vikings host the New Orleans Saints and their league-leading offense.

The only way for a team like the Vikings to have a shot at beating the Saints is to try to match Saints quarterback Drew Brees pass for pass. That's a recipe for disaster for the rookie Ponder, who has 11 touchdowns and 11 interceptions to his name this season.

The Saints have a weak secondary that makes it possible for opponents to keep games close, however I don't see the Vikings as being able to do enough offensively to keep this game competitive.

The fact that running back Adrian Peterson will return this week helps the Vikings, to be sure, but he alone won't be able to drive his team to a win.

Carolina Panthers (at Houston Texans)

While the Carolina Panthers are putting up nearly 400 total yards of offense per game, thanks to the arm of rookie quarterback Cam Newton and the legs of running backs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams (plus those of the dangerously mobile Newton), the Houston Texans have a top-10 defense that's likely to hold Newton and Company down this Sunday.

The Texans are one of the best overall teams in the NFL this season, having taken full advantage of the hole left in the AFC South after the Indianapolis Colts imploded without a good defense and quarterback Peyton Manning to help them.

Despite a number of injuries to starters on both offense and defense, including losing both their starting quarterback Matt Schaub and backup Matt Leinart for the season in consecutive weeks, they haven't stopped winning.

That winning trend won't stop this week when that tough defense works to stop the Panthers' explosive offense and their own offense takes advantage of Carolina's 31st-ranked defense that's giving up an average of 365 total yards per game.

The hallmark of a great team is that they don't struggle with easy opponents. While the Panthers aren't the least-intimidating team in the NFL this season, at 4-9 on the year they are certainly beatable. The Texans may struggle at times but ultimately should pull out a decisive win as the playoffs loom ever larger.

Denver Broncos (vs. New England Patriots)

The Denver Broncos have had an improbable string of wins since quarterback Tim Tebow took over the starting job, winning their last six in a row and notching just one loss in that time.

They've managed an astounding number of come-from-behind victories in that span, with Tebow looking almost entirely ineffective in the air until late in the fourth quarter when defenses go into "prevent" mode, allowing Tebow to string together completions and then leaves the win up to his kicker, Matt Prater, or his own legs to earn the game-winning score.

However, the Broncos have beaten bad teams or teams in the middle of their own personal one-game collapses and have managed to take advantage of that.

They've yet to face a team as intimidating as the New England Patriots and beat them (their one loss of the Tebow era came from the Detroit Lions, one of the toughest teams in the league), and it's going to take quite an offensive feat if they're to do so this week.

What Tebow needs to do is establish and maintain a lead throughout two or three quarters of a game in order to compete with the big boys, and I just don't see him doing so this week, despite the Patriots' 32nd-ranked pass defense that's giving up over 300 yards per game.

I don't see Tebow having progressed enough with his passing skills to throw for that many yards on Sunday.

Though the Denver Broncos possess quite the strong defense that should trouble the Patriots' Tom Brady, the fact that he has so many playmakers at his disposal makes it hard to imagine him being held under 200 yards or not driving his team to three or more touchdowns.

There will be no fourth-quarter heroics this week for the Broncos, as the team is likely to fall to the superior Patriots on Sunday afternoon.