Just 48 games remain in the 2020 NFL regular season and several teams find their playoff hopes hanging by a thread.
Week 15 also marks the return of Sunday morning games here in Australia with Denver-Buffalo and Green Bay-Carolina comprising this weekend’s festive themed double header.
Monday’s marathon schedule concludes with two of the better storylines of the 2020 season with the NFC East challenging Giants hosting the resurgent Cleveland Browns who will be coming off one of the games of the season.
Read on for our Week 15 NFL Tips below!
Vegas finds itself a game out of the final AFC wild card spot and probably needing to win out to sneak into the playoffs.
Turnovers have put them in a tough spot with 10 in their last three games which have seen the belted by the Falcons and Colts while only just sneaking by the Jets.
The Chargers on the other hand are in the midst of an awful season where they are yet to win back to back games due to an inability to close things out.
Even in last week’s win over Atlanta the Chargers did their best to blow it throwing a late interception.
It might be an old cliché but whoever plays a clean game will probably win this and with the Raiders needing to right the ship, I’ll back them to run over a struggling Chargers defence.
At some point, it might be time to stop waiting for the Bills to collapse and realise they could just be a good team that is coming into its own in front of our eyes.
After what was arguably their biggest win of the season, the Bills are now one win away from clinching their first AFC East title in 25 years.
It should keep them focused enough to get through what is always a tough trip to Denver however outside of one big loss to Tennessee in Week 5, the Bills have not been involved in a whole lot of blowouts.
Denver has looked good enough to keep it close which is why a six point line is a stay away however the 1-13 margin looks like the play to take.
Carolina has been a fun team to watch this season, grinding their way through for little reward in the wins column.
It looks like it will be a similar story when they take on the red hot Green Bay Packers this week as they will ultimately find themselves outclassed by the better team.
Aaron Rodgers is suddenly in the MVP mix and the Packers offence is rolling at the right time of the year, which is why the Packers are the bet here.
I’ll throw in the over in the total points market since the Panthers have been creative enough to stay productive on offence and should be able to reach 20, especially if the Packers their foot off the pedal in the second half.
A lot has changed since the Patriots bludgeoned the Dolphins back in Week 1 and the Dolphins can finish off the Patriots playoff hopes with a win here.
Not to mention they need this win to stay ahead of Baltimore and Vegas in the playoff race while also keeping in touch with Cleveland and Indianapolis.
If Brian Flores is a good coach (and he sure looks like one so far), he will bring the house on just about every snap and challenge Cam Newton to try and win the game with his right arm.
Considering Newton can’t complete an easy 10 yard pass without a whole lot of effort, it would be a minor miracle if they can win this game without a whole lot of mistakes by the Dolphins offence.
As things stand, these two teams would face off in this location in three weeks in the NFC Wild Card game.
The 6-7 Football Team sits a game clear on top of the NFC East while the 9-4 Seahawks trail the Rams in the NFC West.
With the way Washington’s defence has played in the last couple of weeks they are every shot of causing an upset, or at least keeping things close.
I can’t see them finishing the job though, no matter how many times Russell Wilson has to run for his life with Chase Young baring down on him, Seattle is still the better team.
Plus there is no telling how badly they needed that convincing demolition of the Jets last week to get their confidence back.
We can all be very happy with the NFL’s decision to move this game to the very early window Monday and save us another Dallas calamity in prime time.
It’s not the most ambitious play here but there is no way I can in all good consciousness suggest taking Dallas to win two games in a row.
Sure they ran over the Bengals last week but when you consider the opponent, it tells you all you need to know.
San Francisco might not be the same team that went to the Super Bowl in February but they are good enough to get the win here.
At some point the Buccaneers will find a way to live up to expectations but right now, they are a team that is getting by on talent alone, instead of just playing well.
The Falcons still have nightmares about Tom Brady after that night in Houston in February 2017, but like a lot of things, we have seen a few evolutions from both parties.
With the line currently at Tampa -6, it’s in that range where I’m not really feeling strongly towards either side since Atlanta could easily keep this close.
Tampa’s secondary can be shredded by a good passing game and even with the ailing Julio Jones status still up in the air, that could elevate Calvin Ridley into the primary role once again.
The Alabama product has two touchdowns in his last three games and topped 100 receiving yards in his last two starts as well.
It looks like the Ravens are back in business after overcoming the Browns in the game of the year last Tuesday.
Admittedly it is still not a perfect looking team however if they can build on the momentum generated last week, they should roll over the Jaguars.
This is the time of year for statement victories and the Ravens need the style points against a Jags side that has their eye on free agency and the draft.
Two weeks ago, the Texans came oh so close to stunning the Colts in Houston but a late game fumble by Deshaun Watson ended what could have been a game winning drive.
Last week they looked nothing short of awful against the Bears, putting up a complete no-show sparking concerns that this team has officially entered “give up territory”.
Colts rookie back Jonathan Taylor is coming off the best game of his career against the Raiders going for 150 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns.
In his first outing against the Texans he picked up 91 yards on 13 carries and I’ll back him to find the end zone in a victory here.
Both the Vikings and Bears go into this game one win behind the seventh seeded Arizona Cardinals, knowing a loss will end their playoff push.
Last week the Bears played their best game of the season to help arrest a six game losing streak, which included a loss at home to Minnesota 19-13 in Week 10.
In that game they did an excellent job shutting down Dalvin Cook but it’s hard to erase the memory of the Packers gashing them for 182 yards on the ground in Week 12.
Cook is just too good to back against him having two bad games against anyone this season.
It’s hard to get a read on how this game is going to go without knowing the status of Matthew Stafford, who left last week’s game with a rib injury.
While he can throw out a winning smile at his press conferences it doesn’t seem like the most responsible course of action for the 5-8 Lions to throw out a limited Stafford.
Admittedly Tennessee’s pass rush doesn’t strike fear into a lot of offensive linemen but one person who does have everyone running scared is Titans running back Derrick Henry.
The human steamroller is coming off his best game of the season, running for over 200 yards and two touchdowns against Jacksonville.
He’s rushed for multiple touchdowns on five occasions this season and against an opponent that has given up the second highest number of scores on the ground, he could be in for another record setting day.
Generally the rule when the Jets play is to back against them at the line and based on their performance in Seattle, -17 is probably still too low.
I’m not touching that line here though, there is every chance the Rams cruise out to a 21-0 lead at halftime and just play out the clock in the second half like they did against New England.
With the way their defence is playing at the moment, there is no chance the Jets score more than 10 points, but the Rams might not score more than 20 because they don’t have to.
I’ll take the Rams to win and under 43.5 points as they only need two good quarters to get by this team.
Plus there’s the fact that Adam Gase is STILL the Jets head coach.
Arizona got back on track with a convincing win over the Giants last week, while the Eagles benefitted from turning to rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts, stunning the Saints.
It helped that both Hurts and Miles Sanders ran for over 100 yards apiece, and we could see another game played in under three hours with both teams looking to establish themselves on the ground.
That shouldn’t stop plenty of points being scored in this one however and the fact the total points number is under 50 points makes it a must back.
Based on the line being only -3 in favour of the Chiefs, it looks like the bookies are expecting Drew Brees to get clearance to play after his stint on injured reserve.
We saw exactly what the limitations were with Taysom Hill last week as the Saints found themselves in a 17-0 hole they couldn’t get out of.
Even so, would you back against the Chiefs right now?
I can’t bring myself to, even if they do jump out to an early lead, get bored and let the Saints back into the game.
It might let the Saints keep in touch the way Miami did last week but there’s no need to back against the reigning champions this week.
Who would have thought that this would be the Monday feature game when the schedule came out?
The Giants have to keep in touch with Washington on top of the NFC East with a win while the Browns need to finish in the highest seed possible in the wild card race.
Regardless of who starts at quarterback for the Giants, the injured Daniel Jones or the barely average Colt McCoy, they just don’t have the firepower to keep up with the Browns offence.
Nick Chubb is perhaps the third best back in the league behind Dalvin Cook and Derrick Henry and he should be able to guide the Browns to a win to help them bounce back from their heartbreaking loss last week.
Let’s not pretend all is well with the until recently unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers.
They have started to stumble after flying out of the blocks and Ben Roethlisberger is starting to look really old.
Working in their favour is the fact the Bengals roster is so depleted the Steelers could probably win this game calling dive plays with a rotating cast of ball carriers.
If there is an office Christmas lunch next Tuesday, it’s probably better to go to that than sit through this one.