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NFL Picks Week 17

December 30, 2011 by · Comments Off on NFL Picks Week 17 

NFL Picks Week 17NFL Picks Week 17, The easiest way for the Oakland Raiders to make the playoffs is to defeat the San Diego Chargers and hope the Denver Broncos fall to the Kansas City Chiefs. That gives them the AFC West division title, but a Wild Card spot can be had with a win plus losses by Cincinnati and Tennessee (or a victory by the New York Jets to replace the latter).

Well, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King is having none of that. King predicts the Chargers to squeak by the Raiders by a field goal, 20-17. He writes:

The see-saw season ends for the Raiders, but look on the bright side: At least they’ll eclipse the all-time record for penalties and penalty yards in a season with four penalties for at least eight yards.

It has been a long season for the Raiders, indeed. They have had to deal with the death of owner Al Davis; the team sent first-round draft picks to the Bengals for Carson Palmer and had to deal with the rise of Tim Tebow in the division. They’ll just need to wait for another season to make the playoffs.

The Denver Broncos’ season comes down to Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Win and the Broncos make it into the NFL playoffs with an AFC division crown. Lose and they need the Oakland Raiders to also drop its season finale. How does the World Wide Leader see things playing out this weekend?

Among the panel of 10 experts, the Broncos are chosen by six of the participants. Former Denver Broncos guard Mark Schlereth is one of the four non-believers who goes with the Chiefs. Joining him is Merril Hoge, who hasn’t liked the Broncos very much this year. Most of that stems from his anti-Tebow rhetoric, but that’s neither here nor there. The Broncos win and lose as a team, not as Tim Tebow.

In the Raiders’ game against the San Diego Chargers, the ESPN panel sees seven of them select Oakland. That doesn’t line up in case the four dissenters in the Broncos game are proven correct.

Will Tim Tebow deliver a ninth victory for the Denver Broncos in the 2011 season? He’ll need to defeat Kyle Orton and the Kansas City Chiefs on New Year’s Day after suffering two defeats in the previous two weeks. He’ll nee to correct his fumbling issues as well as his interceptions. Throwing a pick-six and losing a fumble for a touchdown are certainly not the ways to winning football games.

Anyway, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King predicts that the Broncos will defeat the Chiefs due to some Tebow heroics: “The Broncos do something Tebow-riffic to win at the end.” But it remains nebulous as to what “Tebow-riffic” event happens with the quarterback. King goes on to envision Tebow being the nice guy as he always is and saying something nice about Bill Maher, who recently made a disparaging tweet about Tebow.

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