Welcome to Week 16 of the 2018 NFL season! It is the penultimate week of the regular season and then comes Black Monday firings followed by the first round of the playoffs the following weekend! At times after Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt it felt like this season was dragging, but now it is simply flying by.
The San Francisco 49ers are playing their home finale this Sunday, hosting the Chicago Bears. In the meantime, this week gets started on Saturday, with no more Thursday Night Football. The Tennessee Titans host Washington, while the Los Angeles Chargers host the Baltimore Ravens. Both games feature significant playoff implications.
The 49ers are currently a four-point home underdog to the Bears, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark. The line opened around five points and dropped to as low as 3.5 points before settling at four. I’ve gone back and forth on this. On the one hand, I wonder if the 49ers are going to be a little over-valued after beating Seattle. On the other hand, Chicago is not nearly as good a road team as they are at home, and they will be likely be without free safety Eddie Jackson. I need to sleep on it, but I’m leaning towards taking the points with 49ers. The thing is, if they cover, do they just simply win outright? Is that getting a little too aggressive given how good this Bears defense is? I’m taking the Bears straight up for now, but even that I might change my mind on.
Meanwhile, if you’re somehow still alive in your Survivor pool, you’ve either already won money, or are closing in on big bucks. If you haven’t used the Rams yet, this week at Arizona makes a lot of sense. If you haven’t used the Patriots, you could use them this week at home against Buffalo or next week against the Jets. Maybe you get crazy and roll out the Browns at home against the Bengals?
Here are all my straight-up picks for Week 15. I was 10-6 last week, bringing my season record to 138-83-2. I’ll have the rest of my picks against the spread later this weekend.
Washington @ Titans: Titans
Ravens @ Chargers: Chargers
Bengals @ Browns: Browns
Buccaneers @ Cowboys: Cowboys
Vikings @ Lions: Vikings
Giants @ Colts: Colts
Jaguars @ Dolphins: Dolphins
Bills @ Patriots: Patriots
Packers @ Jets: Packers
Texans @ Eagles: Texans
Falcons @ Panthers: Falcons
Rams @ Cardinals: Rams
Bears @ 49ers: Bears
Steelers @ Saints: Saints
Chiefs @ Seahawks: Chiefs
Broncos @ Raiders: Broncos