Pittsburgh Steelers (– 2) at Tennessee Titans: Tennessee has more problems right now than Rod Blagojevich. The Titans are without their two best defensive linemen, Kyle Vanden Bosch and Pro Bowler/MVP candidate Albert Haynesworth. Quarterback Kerry Collins only averaged 154 passing yards per game in a three-game stretch against three below-average defenses (Detroit, Houston and Cleveland). And Tennessee has gone from having the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs wrapped up to being forced to defeat Pittsburgh to clinch it.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is coming off impressive, gut-wrenching, come-from-behind wins over Dallas and Baltimore. Pittsburgh is playing much better than Tennessee, and Ben Roethlisberger is playing his best football of the season. Roethlisberger should have time to throw and running back Willie Parker should have room to run without Haynesworth and Vanden Bosch around to do anything about it. Prediction: Pittsburgh 17, Tennessee 12.
Miami Dolphins at Kansas City Chiefs (+ 4): Kansas City head coach Herman Edwards has his team play to win their games. Unfortunately, his team plays well enough to cover, but not win. Doesn’t matter to football bettors. Close losses are fine when you have a couple points coming your way. After covering in single-digit defeats against Denver and San Diego, Kansas City plays its last home game of the season against Miami, a team that is a perfect compliment to K.C. because the Dolphins play well enough to win but not well enough to cover on many occasions. Miami had to squeak by to barely beat bottom-feeders like Seattle, Oakland, St. Louis and San Francisco. Look for Chiefs quarterback and super scrambler Tyler "Runs Like Greyhound" Thigpen to get his team enough field goals to keep it close. Prediction: Miami 17, Kansas City 15.
Carolina Panthers at New York Giants (– 3): Carolina played its best back-to-back games of the season the past two weeks. New York played its worst back-to-back games of the season the past two weeks. These teams could not be going in more different directions if they were in opposite airplanes passing each other on a runway. But let’s keep a few things in mind here. Carolina is 0-3 in road games against teams with winning records this year, and the Giants obviously have a winning record. In fact, Carolina was easily defeated in each of those games against Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Minnesota, three teams not as talented as New York.
And do you really believe the reigning Super Bowl champs can have three bad games in a row? Tom Cruise can make three lousy movies in a row, David Hasselhoff can put out three terrible albums in a row, but the Giants cannot play three awful games in a row. Will not happen. Look for Eli Manning to get some protection from Julius Peppers and for the Giants defense to make life miserable for Jake Delhomme, whose stats away from home are scary bad. Prediction: New York 24, Carolina 19.
