There are only 3 weeks left in the season, and sitting at 7-6 isn’t the best spot imaginable. The Packers haven’t been eliminated from playoff contention yet though, so there is still hope. A major factor for this hope is that Aaron Rodgers has been medically cleared to return to play, and will be the starter this week against the Panthers. They’ve been doing well for themselves this year so it’s not going to be an easy matchup by any means, and then there’s the Vikings and Lions games to come, the former who has basically locked up the division title, and the latter who is still fighting for a playoff spot the same as us. There was a graphic I saw somewhere that said outside of the Packers winning their final three games to end the season at 10-6, they will also need two (of five) scenarios to happen. These involved the other NFC leaders, the Seahawks, Falcons, Panthers, Vikings and Eagles. Some of those teams need to drop some games, and others need to win. It’s convoluted, but at the end of the day the only thing we can control is winning games, and that starts this weekend. Let’s see how I did last week:

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

Ouch, I thought I was doing pretty well at making my picks for the last few weeks, but I got all kinds of wrong this time around. Oh well, it’s not like someone is giving me an award for making picks, it’s just for funsies! Let’s make some picks for next week and move along, shall we?

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

Fingers crossed that some of those scenarios that will help us out occur this weekend and get the ball rolling. It’s another run-the-table type of season, but we’ve needed to do this before and have done so, so I think we’ll make it back for the 9th year in a row. Time will tell!