Week 12 Thoughts - Predators

It’s Week 12 in the NFL, and the apex predators are on the hunt.

Are you an injured gazelle on the Serengeti that is the NFL playoff race? Are you limping toward December, hopeful that you can scrape together enough energy to make a late push toward the oasis that is the postseason? You’d better be careful, lest you be caught and…eliminated.

This metaphor springs directly from our pick ‘em leagues, because boy it seemed like there are a lot of slam dunks on the schedule this week as I was making my picks and stacking them in order to maximize my point totals.

I don’t even think there are necessarily any juggernauts teams in the NFL this year, but the matchups between the haves and have nots are stark this week. Ravens/Jets, 49ers/Panthers, Seahawks/Titans…these and other matchups seem to tilt so sharply to one side that it’s hard to really talk myself into any sort of underdog upset.

Parity is baked into the NFL, and upsets are, of course, always possible. But we’re getting to the point of the season where the gaps between the teams contending for the playoffs and the teams that are not is growing wider. Nobody’s been mathematically eliminated yet, but it’s coming, and teams like the Titans, the Raiders, the Jets, and the Browns all know it’s on its way.

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