Mild weather at the seven outdoor National Football League game sites today with only a chance of rain in Tennessee where the Titans host the Kansas City Chiefs. This is the first game in ten years that the Chiefs are playing without a playoff berth on the line. Their loss last week to the Los Angeles Chargers mathematically eliminated Andy Reid’s team from postseason play.
In the loss, the Chiefs also had their field general, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, suffer an injury that required surgery and may prevent him from being ready to go when Kansas City opens camp next summer. While no one with any class would celebrate an injury to another player, you have to know that in Buffalo and Baltimore the Bills and Ravens are happy to see Mahomes exit before the playoffs.
If Mahomes wasn’t, the Bills or Ravens may have had multiple Super Bowl appearances in recent years … neither of those quality teams have even advanced to a Roman Numeral game while Mahomes has led the Chiefs to five Super Bowls and won three of them.
For the good of the game, from our desk we hope the successful surgery is followed up with a problem free rehabilitation and the talented future Hall of Fame quarterback is back leading the Chiefs next season.
Today, we get to see how the Chiefs perform without Mahomes and with nothing to play for but pride. The betting world doesn’t like their chances; they are only favored by a field goal or less against a Titans team that has only two wins this season.
The Chiefs in a meaningless game in December … go figure.
There are a lot of games today that mean a lot. The Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers meet at Bank of America Stadium with first place in the NFC South Division at stake. The Panthers had a chance to take sole possession of the top spot in their division with a win last week over the lowly New Orleans Saints and were pinned with their second loss of the season against Kellen Moore’s squad.
The Buccaneers, who started the season strong which included a road win over the talented Seattle Seahawks, have fizzled like a Roman Candle on July 5th. Their once commanding lead in their division has melted to a tie after absorbing losses in five of six games since they served their bye week on November 2.
They are slight road favorites against the upstart Panthers today, and while we lean to the home team their inexperience against a Buccaneers team that has won their division four straight years pauses our enthusiasm for the Panthers.
The Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars meet in the Mile High City in a contest between two division leaders. The Broncos come into action today riding an 11-game winning streak and with a two-game lead over the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC West. The Jaguars lead the AFC South Division by one game over the Houston Texans.
To maintain their division lead, the Jaguars presumably need to win while their closest competition is hosting the Las Vegas Raiders in Houston.
The public thinks Denver will prevail at home, the Broncos (-3½) over Jacksonville is the most bet game of the week. The next two most popular public plays for Week 16 are the Buffalo Bills (-10½) over the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings (-2½) over the New York Giants.
The Qoxhi money rated selections are now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour before the first kickoff of the day, that game will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.