Chiefs 30-34 Chargers

This is the last Thursday Night Football game of the year. The NFL really saved the best for last, as the two best teams in the AFC battle out a division. In my opinion, the winning quarterback on Thursday should be NFL MVP. Patrick Mahomes has turned the Chiefs into the best team in the AFC, and has already reached 40 touchdowns on the season. Phillip Rivers is having one of the best years of his career at 37, flashing a 114 passer rating, and has lead to the Chargers to 10-3. We all know what happened to Kareem Hunt, and there’s also a good chance that Melvin Gordon  won’t be seeing the field as well due to injury. Still, this match-up should be extremely exciting and go down to the wire. Tyreek Hill is banged up, which might hurt his history of burning elite corner Casey Hayward. The Chargers are actually the fourth best defense in the league against the pass, so it should be interesting to see an elite secondary against Patrick Mahomes. If anyone is going to slow the young quarterback down, it’s going to be the Chargers. It doesn’t hurt to have all pros Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram rushing the quarterback with rookie stud Derwin James and Casey Hayward behind them. The Chiefs have the better offense, but the Chargers have the better defense, and their offense is closer in efficiency to the Chiefs offense than the Chiefs defense is to the Chargers defense.

Jets 17-23 Texans

The Texans 9 game winning streak ended last week, and exposed some weaknesses. Still, the Texans are one of the best teams in the NFL and have a great chance to rebound against a terrible Jets team.

Broncos 24-20 Browns

We have a chance here to see four of the best rookies in football, when Phillip Lindsay and Bradley Chubb take on Bradley’s cousin, Nick Chubb, and Baker Mayfield. It’s a chance to see some future stars in prime time. Baker Mayfield has a tough Broncos defense to beat, and I think he will make a mistake or two that will end up allowing the Broncos to take the game.

Titans 23-20 Giants

Derrick Henry outran the entire Rams offense last week, and he has another great match-up in week 15. Both of these teams have a slim chance of making the playoffs, but they both will need to win out. I trust that the Titans will hold Saquon Barkley under 150 yards, which for any other player would be a very safe prediction but not so much in Saquon’s world. Barkley needs just 247 more all purpose yards to surpass 2,000 as a rookie. Not bad. This game should go down to the wire.

Falcons 34-10 Cardinals

As bad as the Falcons have been this year, it’s tough to not bet on a blowout when they take on the lowly Cardinals Sunday.

Bengals 17-16 Raiders

Make sure to tune into this match-up of football geniuses as Jon Gruden takes on a head coach who is likely to be replaced by Hue Jackson. Ouch.

Vikings 30-22 Dolphins

Yes, it’s hard not agree with those saying that Kirk Cousins is one of the most overpaid athletes in the world today. But, on the other side is the Dolphins, who somehow have a winning record and a shot at the playoffs despite looking extremely mediocre on both sides of the ball. The game should go down to the wire, but I’m not expecting Kyle Rudolph to have to make the game winning tackle. With that being said, the Vikings haven’t beat a winning team this season, and this a prime spot to get rid of that stat.

Cowboys 24-23 Colts

The Colts just ended the Texans 9 game winning streak, and they will again have to put out fire in Week 15 when they take on the red hot Cowboys. The Cowboys clinch playoffs with a win, which I really hope doesn’t happen so I don’t have to hear Cowboys fans talk about how they’re going to win 5 straight Super Bowls. But it’s too hard to bet against a red hot Amari Cooper and Zeke Elliott and an elite defense in a huge game.

Bears 25-20 Packers

Anyone doubting the Bears was shut up after their dominant performance against the Rams last week. The Packers looked refreshed in their first game without Mike McCarthy, but Joe Philbin played with fire when he decided to bench Aaron Jones in the first quarter, which was one of the main reasons McCarthy got fired. The guy averages over 5 yards yards a carry and catches passes, what else do you need from a running back? Anyways, the Bears defense is very scary. So scary that I’m not expecting Aaron Rodgers to throw for more than 200 yards.

Buccaneers 13-30 Ravens

The Ravens decided to go with Lamar Jackson this weekend, who has been labeled as a “RunningQuarter” by fans due to his tendency to run for more yards than throw for them. Whatever you want to call him, Jackson is 3-1 as a starter, and just gave the Chiefs a very tough test. The Buccaneers defense lacks speed and a good secondary, so it won’t be hard for Jackson to have another 100 yard rushing game while being effective through the air. According to reports, Joe Flacco is “disappointed” in losing the job he held for a decade. Poor Joe.

Lions 20-17 Bills

The Bills have the far better defense, but will likely be without Lesean McCoy, and the mistake prone Josh Allen is always a threat to throw the game away.

Jaguars 17-10 Redskins

In what should be a bad football game, we will see gods clash in Cody Kessler against Josh Johnson. The Jaguars have the superior defense, so I guess they win?

Patriots 33-31 Steelers

If there hadn’t already been so many good games this season, I would say that this game has a chance to be game of the year. Tom Brady has slowed a slight decline this year, but is coming off a game where he threw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. He should continue to be elite until the day he finally decides to hang it up. On the other side, the Steelers had the embarrassment of losing to the Raiders last week, who probably didn’t even want to win. The good thing: Joshua Dobbs will probably not be playing this week. The Steelers still haven’t beaten a winning team this season, and an injured Big Ben and James Conner won’t help things out. I think they’ll keep it close, but the Patriots will win this game.

Seahawks 40-23 49ers

The 49ers haven’t beaten the Seahawks since 2014, back when Colin Kaepernick was still considered an elite quarterback and Candlestick Park was just closing. In recent years, the Niners haven’t fared so well against their rivals, losing 9 straight. They got beat 43-16 by the Hawks in week 13, and Richard Sherman recently called the Seahawks a “middle of the road team,” which should make this match-up pretty exciting, at least talking wise. Since the Seahawks can clinch a playoff spot with a win, I don’t see Russell Wilson flopping after a horrid performance against the Vikings Monday Night.

Rams 31-27 Eagles

I think the Eagles will give the Rams a decent game on Sunday night, but ultimately the Rams should not lose this game. Now chasing the Saints for first in the NFC (The Saints having home field for the playoffs generally doesn’t end well) The Rams will need to win this game and hope for the Saints to lose a game in order to reclaim the NFC crown.

Saints 24-26 Panthers

This could be one of those “you’re an idiot” moments, with the Panthers losing 5 straight and running into Drew Brees in prime time. But the Panthers are still 5-1 at home this season and this game is the definition of a must-win game. As bad as Cam Newton has been in recent weeks, he gets a rebound match-up with a team who allows 8.2 yards per pass attempt. Newton needs to have a big game to still be respected as a good quarterback, and for the Panthers to see the playoffs.

Bonus:

Since this is my last prediction for the Daily Chomp after 4 years, I accumulated my record for this year. I only picked 7 weeks and missed a couple of Thursday Night games, so keep that in mind.

My Record this season: 58-42

Exact scores predicted: 2