NFL Picks Week 15: Road Teams That will Serve Upset Specials

NFL bottom-dwellers are serving upsets this holiday season rather than exciting gifts. 

Teams with hopes of clinching a playoff berth or bettering their postseason position need be aware, football elves like Cam Newton and Michael Vick are making lists and checking them twice in Week 15.

With teams going all out for a final playoff push or postseason-spoiling effort, expect the mighty to fall this weekend in the NFL.

The Green Bay Packers will roll on the road for yet another week, but these three teams won't be so merry in Week 15:

Carolina Panthers

The Panthers will attempt to become just the second team to knock off the Texans in Houston this season. 

One has to wonder how much longer the T.J. Yates show can continue for Houston though, as the guy is a rookie and a third-stringer.

Cam Newton is also a rookie, but hardly a third-stringer. The former national champion Auburn Tiger is a top candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2011, and has folks in Carolina smiling about the future.

Expect a shootout at Reliant Stadium on Sunday, with the Panthers edging out the Texans to claim their fifth win of the year, and send Houston to just their fourth loss of 2011.

Cleveland Browns

Another 4-9 team that won't be suiting up this postseason with a chance to knock off a contender is the Cleveland Browns. 

Cleveland was game last week at Pittsburgh and would have won the game if not for a pitiful red zone effort late in the fourth quarter.

Even though the Cardinals are strong at home in 2011, they've won four out of six, these are the kind of games they lose late in the season.

John Skelton cannot be trusted, and Peyton Hillis finds some holes in the Arizona D, Cleveland will win a low-scoring bore-fest. 

Seattle Seahawks

Could the Bears really lose four straight games and fall completely out of the playoff race? 

You bet they can, and they will on Sunday afternoon when they host the surging Seattle Seahawks. Marshawn Lynch is running angry and with a beautiful purpose at exactly the right time of year.

Although the Bears have been monsters at Soldier Field, and the 'Hawks have been ragged on the road in 2011, these teams are trending in opposite directions, and that leads to only one, painfully obvious realization: Seattle will deliver the upset in Week 15.

There are plenty of road favorites this weekend in the NFL, but the Seahawks are, without a doubt, the most obvious road underdog to pick.