Haven’t done any NFL picks this season, only because everyone else does them, and since we watch games all day Sunday and then talk about them all of Monday, it’s kind of a football overload. But now that the games carry added significance (and the college regular season is over), we’re going with the picks. Tonight it’s Chicago at Washington on the NFL network (we’ll listen on the radio, except for that 30 minute span when The Office is on – can’t have any distractions, that’s how obsessed we are), followed by a real solid slate of Sunday games. Playoffs spots are up for grabs, Pittsburgh needs to win to keep the first round bye dream alive, and of course, there are the winless Dolphins and unbeaten Patriots, one hoping to make history and the other trying to avoid it.

San Diego at Tennessee – The Titans are at home, have their best defensive player back, and Philip Rivers has yet to lead the Chargers to a quality road win. Still, we’re going with SD, for no reason other than Tennessee remains overrated in our warped mind. SD, 14-10.

Pittsburgh at New England – Steelers on the road – lost to Arizona, Denver and the Jets. Yikes. And they have guys making guarantees? Patriots obviously win here, and it won’t be as close as their last two narrow escapes because Belichick will pull on the hood and say, “See them in the playoffs, you will.” Patriots 34, Steelers 17.

Chicago at Washington – For a team struggling this year, the Bears have been strangely competitive on the road: a freak fumble cost them the season opener in San Diego, and they beat Green Bay and Philly. The Redskins are reeling not only from the death of a teammate, but also the timeout blunder last week by Joe Gibbs that cost them a must-win against Buffalo. Washington’s last three home games: by two over Arizona, and narrow losses to Philly and Buffalo. Bucking wisdom, we’ll go with Washington, 17-16, but don’t feel confident enough to put any action on it.

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Dallas at Detroit – We wrote earlier about the anger factor the Cowboys will have coming into this game … but as readers noted in the comments of that post, the Lions have much more to play for, and it’s not as if Dallas has exactly shut any quarterbacks down. Lot of folks seem to like the Lions … to cover 10.5. Nobody thinks they’ll actually win. We envision the Cowboys moving the ball at will and then chewing clock with Barber and Jones against a weak defense in the second half. Dallas, 38-20.

Miami at Buffalo – Perhaps the media’s interest in a winless regular season will spark John Beck and … who the hell else is on this offense? to do something in the snowstorm they are expecting this weekend, but we doubt it. Bad weather sometimes means freak plays … so we’d avoid this one at all costs. Buffalo 10-6.

Indianapolis at Baltimore – Talk about a brutal schedule – last week it was the best team in football; this week, it’s the third best. On short rest, too! No shot for the Ravens here. None. Indy 28-9.