Week 15 is the last of the NFL season with a Thursday night game and the first with Saturday action. It’s also a huge weekend in the AFC with four legitimate Super Bowl contenders facing each other.
Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
The last TNF game of the year is the best of them all matchup wise: Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs, with Kansas City a 3.5-point favorite. If Kansas City beats the Chargers for the 10th straight time, the Chiefs will win the AFC West and essentially lock up the top seed in the conference. A Chargers upset could give both to Los Angeles. Kansas City is 5-0-1 ATS in its past six night games.
The marquee matchup on Sunday is New England Patriots at Pittsburgh Steelers, with the Pats as 1-point favorites. New England still has a shot at the AFC’s top seed as it holds a tiebreaker over Kansas City, but it’s more likely the Patriots are playing for the No. 2 spot. They lost in about the most unlikely fashion possible this past Sunday in Miami.
Pittsburgh was also stunned as a sizable road favorite, falling at a bad Oakland Raiders team. The Steelers still control their destiny for the AFC North title but a three-game losing streak has come at a terrible time. New England has won five straight in this series by an average margin of 12.8 points.
It appears we will not have a repeat Super Bowl champion this season as the Philadelphia Eagles would need to win out and get a lot of help simply for a wild-card spot. They could be eliminated Sunday night as 9-point underdogs at the Los Angeles Rams, who are battling New Orleans for the NFC’s top seed. The Eagles have won the past five in this series, including last year when Carson Wentz suffered his torn ACL.
No rivalry has been played more often than Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, and they face off Sunday in the Windy City with Chicago as a 6-point favorite. The Bears would wrap up the NFC North title for the first time since 2010 with a victory. They blew a 20-0 third-quarter lead in Green Bay in Week 1, and the Packers have covered 12 of the past 16 against the Bears.
