NFL week 13 picks

For the first time all year I had the lead and then extended it. I'm up 2 games on Loren now with a 46-26 record compared to his 44-28.

Carolina at Tampa Bay
Loren - Tampa Bay. Freeman will probably be back for the Bucs, and playing at home should be the extra edge Tampa Bay needs to their losing streak. Wait, I think I said something similar last week, too. Crap...
Derek - Tampa Bay. Blount will be able to run the ball and control the game for the Bucs, Newton to Smith won't succeed and that'll be enough.

Oakland at Miami
Loren - Oakland. True, Miami has played better recently, and we may not see McFadden for this game, and the Raiders are traveling across country...damn it I can't believe I talked myself into this one. Well, I'll take Palmer and Bush over Matt Moore and ???.
Derek - Miami. I went back and forth but what got me was the cross country travel for Oakland and that Miami had extra rest since playing on Thanksgiving.

Denver at Minnesota
Loren - Denver. With AP out of this game, the vicious Broncos D can spend all day knocking Ponder around. This will probably be the closest to a winning blowout the Broncos get all year.
Derek - Denver. As the fake Kyle Orton said "I didn't realize that to be a good QB all you have to do is hand the ball off." That's all Tebow needs to do in this one.

Tennessee at Buffalo
Loren - Tennessee. Sad to say it, but the Bills won't be able to pull out of their nosedive this week. The Titans smell blood now that Houston is starting someone we've never heard of. They just need to take care of business and watch Houston slowly crumble. The Bills could have been helped in this game by a dose of nasty Buffalo weather, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
Derek - Tennessee. The Bills are looking like the team we thought they'd be. Stevie Johnson was fined but will play but won't be enough for the suddenly healthy CJ.

Green Bay at NY Giants
Loren - Green Bay. Why start losing now?
Derek - Green Bay. I won't be surprised if NY wins this one they are so up and down, but have a history of knocking off undefeated teams Denver in 98 and New England in the Super Bowl a few years ago, but I'm riding Rodgers all the way.

Detroit at New Orleans
Loren - New Orleans. Losing Suh is a big blow to Detroit's defense, but they have a lot of depth. More concerning is Matt Stafford's TD/INT ratio of 7/9 over the last three games. If they're to have any shot, he's got to clean up those mistakes. Unfortunately for Detroit, even a perfect game might not be enough to beat the Saints.
Derek - New Orleans. The Saints roll points on the board in any big national game, guess when this game is? Sunday night. Win by double digits.