The final week of the regular season is always full of playoff-clinching scenarios and dominoes that will fall over a short span of time. This season is no different. In fact, according to the Washington Post, there is a record-tying 20 teams alive heading into the year’s finale.
And the scheduling does not disappoint.
Granted, with the sheer quantity of playoff-hopeful teams in-play, it would have been difficult to mess up the approach to the weekend. Still, we will have approximately 24-hours of competition that will decide the fate of a dozen teams.
As always, this week is the rare exception where I wait to publish the article and reserve the right to make a change before the games begin. It doesn’t happen often, and I would highlight it. It’s truly not worth the effort, but I want to cover my bases in case we get some late news that drastically changes what we could expect.
Otherwise, we head into battle one final time for the regular season.
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. Spread is listed as advertised number and odds at either DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, Caesars Sportsbook, or PointsBet. All efforts were made to provide picks at -110 or better, with some stretching to a -125 if no reasonable advertised spread was found.
*Confidence Picks – 2023 Season: 57-55-4 (Last Week: 4-2)
(2022 Season: 54-54-5) (2021 Season: 55-50) (2020 Season: 53-42-3) (2019 Season: 57-43-3) (2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2) (9-Year Total: 518-443-26)
All Picks Against Spread – 2023 Season: 128-120-8 (Last Week: 11-5)
(2022 Season: 143-132-9) (2021 Season: 158-126-2) (2020 Season: 132-128-7) (2019 Season: 142-118-7) (2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4) (9-Year Total: 1264-1108-67)
Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens
Immediately, we have a problem.
For as wonderful as the schedule is for the final week of the regular season, we see the glaring flaw in it right away. That is, the Pittsburgh Steelers play a role in other teams’ futures, and the outcome of this game will have an impact on what happens the following day.
Conversely, none of that applies to the Baltimore Ravens. They absolutely do not want to lose to their rivals — especially at home — but they have no reason to risk injury for pride.
Regardless, even though I wrote in the introduction that this is the one rare week where things might change, I’d like to get ahead of the potential news