San Diego Chargers vs Tennessee Titans Christmas Day NFL Week 16

San Diego Chargers vs Tennessee Titans Christmas Day NFL Week 16: Listen, I don’t want to make this about more than it is. One of these two teams is better than the other. One of these teams has something to play for. One of these teams has a better defense and a more impressive offense. One of these teams in an underdog despite clearly being the “One team” in all the above statements. I know it seems crazy, but I’m taking that team to win outright on the road in this one.

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To talk about the Chargers for a second, it seems they haven’t lost a December game since they’ve been a player in the AFC. They’ve been a handful for anyone and everyone come playoff time, or the last month of the season, and this year is no different. The Chargers started a little slow, falling far behind the Denver Broncos in a mediocre AFC West, but 9 wins in a row can quell lots of problems, and the Chargers have taken a solid lead over the rest of the AFC not playing home games in Indianapolis.

The Tennessee Titans also went on a pretty spectacular run, especially when you consider their 0-6 start to the season. Since then, and since they inserted Vince Young into the starting quarterback role, the Titans are 7-1 and continue to do their best in the spoiler role.

But the bottom line is the Titans have beaten just one team with a record better than .500 as of today. One. The Arizona Cardinals, in Tennessee. Now Arizona can be a great team, no doubt, but they can also be terrible, and having that single home win over a better than .500 team doesn’t impress-a-me-much. I’ll take the powerful dogs in this one.

San Diego Chargers (+3) @ Tennessee Titans:

Baltimore Ravens vs Minnesota Vikings Football Pick

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Baltimore Ravens (+3) @ Minnesota Vikings: This is one of the biggest games of the week, two teams that have played extremely well to start the season. The Ravens come in 3-2 (after losing in the final seconds to the Bengals a week after losing to the Patriots in New England) while Minnesota has walked through a relatively weak schedule all the way to 5-0 (Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis hardly belong in the NFL). And yes, the Brett Favre experiment seems to be working just fine. The decent teams Minnesota has faced kept things close, as Brett Favre needed his miracle toss with a second left to beat the 49ers, and Green Bay’s late rally fell short despite shutting down Adrian Peterson and that feared Viking rushing attack. The Ravens haven’t been as stingy on defense, and Joe Flacco has struggled a bit in the last two contests, but you’d have to say Baltimore is easily the Vikings’ toughest task yet. With that being what it is, I’m taking the Ravens here. The 49ers and Ravens are very similar teams, the difference being Baltimore should be healthier than San Fran was in their game against the Vikings. The 49ers should have won that game, and Baltimore should win this game. We’ll see if Should turns into a win this time.