The New England Patriots are back at .500 thanks to a dominant 45-0 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 13. After a short turnaround, they will now have to take on the other team that calls L.A. its home: the Patriots will take on the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football and with a chance to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Will they be able to do it? We here at Pats Pulpit feel confident as our latest round of picks shows: all of our writers participating picked New England to win, despite entering the game as 5-point underdogs.
“Sean McVay’s gotta show me he can even coach in Bill’s zip code before I believe it,” wrote Matthew Rewinski about the matchup.
Tonight’s game will obviously be watched closely, but it is not the only high-profile matchup Patriots fans will keep an eye on as four other games with major playoff implications will take place this weekend: the Miami Dolphins will go up against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Las Vegas Raiders against the Indianapolis Colts, the Buffalo Bills versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, before the Cleveland Browns face the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night.
This weekend could therefore go a long way towards making or breaking the Patriots’ postseason aspirations. At the very least it could change the AFC playoff picture quite a bit.
Before getting ahead of ourselves, however, let’s return to our ambitious goal of correctly picking each game this season.
SB Nation has partnered with Tallysight this year, after all, so we are gladly trying our best to a) use their game picking tool, and b) find out who of us is best at this. So without any further ado, here is this week’s round-up which is totally not biased in the Patriots’ direction whatsoever. And please let us know what you think in the comments below!