A morale booster, that overtime win versus Tampa Bay was. Honestly, if we could have gotten the upset over Pittsburgh the week earlier, we would be in a better position now. It’s unfortunate, but even though we got to .500 again, the road ahead is difficult and even if Rodgers comes back the week we face the Panthers, if we don’t win out the season will be for nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for him to come back and I would love to win out and still make the playoffs, but there is the chance that even doing so, being at 10-6 might not be good enough this year — despite the fact that we’ve seen a 7-9 playoff team before. I haven’t give up yet though, there’s a near certain win ahead of us this week facing the winless Browns and we could see Rodgers back which makes anything possible. Let’s see how I did last week:

Cowboys 21, Redskins 13 – Correct
Vikings 28, Falcons 24 – Correct
Titans 27, Texans 21 – Correct
Chiefs 28, Jets 10
Dolphins 20, Broncos 10 – Correct
Jags 23, Colts 14 – Correct
Packers 30, Buccs 17 – Correct
Ravens 23, Lions 19 – Correct
Patriots 31, Bills 20 – Correct
Bears 27, 49ers 7 
Chargers 30, Browns 10 – Correct
Raiders 27, Giants 13 – Correct
Saints 27, Panthers 26 – Correct
Rams 32, Cardinals 21 – Correct
Eagles 35, Seahawks 24
Steelers 31, Bengals 20 – Correct

Only three wrong this go round. Seems like I’m getting pretty good at this thing, but later in the season it almost becomes more predictable, if you’ve been paying attention. Like I said, we face the Browns this week so I expect to go to 7-6. Every game is a playoff game from here on out, just like last year and seasons before it. We’ll need some help along the way but things could always be worse. I’m writing this after the Thursday night game is already over, so we know that the Falcons won that one, and I think I would have picked against them so I guess we’ll count that one incorrect. Here’s the rest of my picks:

Bills 24, Colts 13
Cowboys 27, Giants 14
Buccs 21, Lions 10
Raiders 28, Chiefs 21
Texans 30, 49ers 10
Packers 24, Browns 13
Bengals 23, Bears 17
Panthers 21, Vikings 20
Chargers 20, Redskins 19
Jets 21, Broncos 7
Titans 27, Cardinals 14
Rams 30, Eagles 27
Jaguars 26, Seahawks 20
Steelers 28, Ravens 23
Patriots 31, Dolphins 13

We’ll see how I do next week. Until then.